LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


PRESENTED  BY 

MR.  &  MRS.  MILES  TINKER 


SILENT  READING 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  -    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


SILENT   READING 


A  STUDY  IN  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PEDAGOGY 
OF  READING 


BY 

JOHN   ANTHONY   O'BRIEN,   PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   IN    THE    COLUMBUS    FOUNDATION 
AT    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    ILLINOIS 


Neto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1922 

fffUt  ruervtd 

I 


COPYBIGHT,  1921, 

BY  THE  MAOMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  elect  retyped.     Published  March,  1921. 


Nortoooli  \3rcss 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  — Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


So 
BURDETTE  ROSS  BUCKINGHAM 

In  grateful  acknowledgment 
of  my  indebtedness  to  him 

THIS   BOOK    IS    DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

THE  processes  and  purposes  involved  in  silent  reading 
have  lately  been  subjected  to  searching  analysis.  The 
former  are  revealed  as  both  physiological  and  psycho- 
logical, the  latter  as  both  complex  and  various.  Each 
has  its  lessons  for  the  guidance  of  the  teacher;  and 
each  exalts  the  importance  of  reading  as  a  school 
subject. 

Reading  processes  on  their  psychological  side  are 
essentially  associative  —  associative  of  impressions  with 
meanings  and  of  meanings  with  each  other.  In  the 
latter  sense  they  are  frequently  identified  with  study. 
Indeed,  silent  reading  of  the  reflective  type  differs  in 
no  practical  sense  from  study.  The  fact  that  in  study 
we  repeat  and  recapitulate  adds  but  little  of  a  qualita- 
tive nature  to  the  reading  act.  Processes  on  the 
physiological  side  consist  in  large  part  of  eye-move- 
ments. The  number,  length,  groupings,  and  progres- 
sive or  recessive  character  of  these  movements  are  at 
once  symptoms  and  conditions  of  reading  efficiency. 
Moreover,  they  take  place  according  to  patterns  which 
are  peculiar  to  each  individual,  being  the  product  of 
original  nature  and  of  practice.  So  far  as  they  depend 
on  practice,  they  are  capable  of  improvement ;  and  this 


VU1  PREFACE 

improvement  is  a  matter  of  habit  formation.  Since 
each  eye-movement  is  definitely  terminated  by  a  pause 
or  point  at  which  the  eye  rests  and  during  which  seeing 
takes  place,  the  analysis  of  eye-movement  becomes  in 
fact  the  analysis  of  pauses.  Better  habits  of  eye-move- 
ment, therefore,  consist  in  better  habits  of  eye  pausing. 

The  purposes  of  silent  reading  have  been  enumerated 
at  some  length  by  various  writers.  For  example,  we 
may  read  for  appreciation,  for  entertainment,  or  for 
information ;  and  each  of  these  purposes  may  be  com- 
bined to  a  varying  degree  of  intensity  with  one  or  both 
of  the  others.  Moreover,  each  is  capable  of  subdivision. 
In  reading  for  information  we  may  seek  to  acquire  as 
much  as  possible  of  what  the  author  has  written,  or  we 
may  try  merely  to  apprehend  his  main  points,  or  again 
we  may  wish  to  find  out  what,  if  anything,  he  has  to 
offer  on  a  topic  which  we  have  in  mind  before  we  begin 
the  reading.  Moreover,  with  reference  to  these  in- 
formational purposes,  we  may  read  for  immediate  use, 
or  for  use  on  a  definite  and  early  occasion ;  or  we  may 
read  to  make  the  material  as  permanent  a  possession  as 
possible. 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  teaching  of  reading  the  pur- 
poses for  which  people  read  must  receive  consideration. 
In  particular,  pupils  should  be  placed  in  situations 
where  certain  purposes  consciously  or  unconsciously 
become  appropriate ;  and  they  should  be  led  to  adopt 
attitudes  and  modes  of  action  with  reference  to  these 
purposes.  Thus  the  method  by  which  reading  is  taught 


PREFACE  ix 

will  vary  with  the  object  in  view.  But  no  matter  what 
the  object  may  be,  the  material  must  be  understood,  or 
the  process  is  not  reading  at  all.  The  degree  of  com- 
prehension, in  the  light  of  the  reader's  purpose,  is 
rightly  taken  as  a  test  of  good  reading. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  only  test.  No  matter  what 
the  reading  purpose  may  be  at  any  given  time,  the 
effectiveness  of  the  reading  act  is  dependent  not  only  on 
the  degree  of  the  reader's  comprehension  but  also  upon 
the  readiness  or  speed  with  which  the  act  takes  place. 
Moreover,  rate'  and  comprehension  of  reading  are 
related  in  such  a  way  that  on  the  average  fast  readers 
comprehend  better  than  slow  readers.  This  does  not 
mean  that  a  given  individual  comprehends  better  the 
faster  he  reads.  It  means  that  as  between  two  indi- 
viduals one  of  whom  has  a  natural  or  habitual  rate 
higher  than  that  of  the  other,  the  faster  reader  will 
probably  read  more  understandingly.  It  also  means 
that  if  the  same  individual  can  raise  his  rate  of  habitual 
reading,  he  will  probably  improve  his  comprehension 
of  what  he  reads. 

There  are  reasons  why  this  should  be  true.  In  the 
first  place,  since  comprehension  is  an  associative  process, 
it  will  be  facilitated,  as  association  is  always  facilitated, 
by  anything  which  brings  the  associated  elements  into 
closer  sequence.  Rapid  reading  brings  into  operation 
the  law  of  contiguity  by  bringing  the  author's  ideas 
into  the  reader's  consciousness  in  immediate  connection 
with  each  other.  The  child  who  reads  haltingly  under- 


X  PREFACE 

stands  little  because  he  receives  the  ideas  in  isolation. 
In  the  second  place,  the  actual  process  of  reading  should 
be  in  the  background  of  consciousness  in  order  that 
attention  may  be  concentrated  on  the  thought.  The 
rapid  reader  is  the  one  who  has  so  mastered  the 
mechanics  that  this  concentration  of  attention  can 
take  place. 

Not  only  are  the  reasons  plausible  for  a  connection 
between  comprehension  and  rate  of  reading,  but  the 
evidence  on  the  question  is  conclusive.  On  numerous 
occasions  data  have  been  published.  For  example,  in 
an  article  in  the  March,  1920,  number  of  the  American 
Schoolmaster  a  brief  but  clear-cut  inquiry  was  made 
into  the  relation  between  rapid  reading  and  under- 
standing of  the  material  read.  A  class  of  college  stu- 
dents, reading  a  psychological  article  for  one  minute, 
varied  in  the  number  of  words  read  from  174  to  520. 
Immediately  after  the  reading,  questions  were  asked 
on  the  first  paragraph  which,  since  it  contained  only 
154  words,  had  been  read  by  all  the  students.  There 
was  a  tendency  for  the  fast  readers  to  answer  more 
questions  correctly.  The  strength  of  this  tendency  may 
be  expressed  by  the  fact  that  the  person  who  ranked 
above  the  average  in  rate  had  five  out  of  eight  chances 
to  rank  above  the  average  in  comprehension. 

Therefore,  both  because  rate  is  an  important  factor 
in  every  type  of  reading  and  also  because  it  tends  to 
vary  with  comprehension,  rate  of  reading  is  an  impor- 
tant test  of  good  reading.  Indeed,  one  may  plausibly 


PREFACE  xi 

contend  that  a  person's  habitual  rate  of  reading  is  the 
one  best  measure  of  his  ability  as  a  reader.  Not  only 
does  it  go  with  comprehension  but  it  also  strictly  con- 
ditions the  volume  of  reading.  Everything  we  do  is 
done  in  time.  I  have  a  certain  time  to  devote  to  the 
morning  paper.  The  extent  of  my  comprehension  of 
the  news  of  the  day  depends  to  a  large  extent  on  the 
amount  I  can  cover  in  the  time  at  my  disposal.  In  a 
large  sense  the  amount  which  one  can  read  measures 
the  extent  to  which  one  is  well  informed.  In  school 
the  pupil  who  can  read  rapidly  reads  much,  and  by  that 
fact  alone  has  a  better  understanding.  In  adult  life 
praise  is  accorded  to  the  "well-read"  man.  Compre- 
hension, therefore,  as  it  concerns  competence  in  reading, 
is  definitely  related  to  the  amount  read  ;  and  the  latter 
is  in  turn  definitely  related  to  the  rate  at  which  reading 
takes  place. 

The  conditions  which  favor  rapid  reading  are  there- 
fore of  importance  to  school  people.  If  eye-movement 
is  a  matter  of  habit,  then  the  laws  of  habit  formation 
apply.  If  eye-movement  conditions  rate  of  reading, 
then  these  laws  may  be  invoked  to  improve  not  only 
rate  of  reading  but  also  the  entire  reading  process. 
The  present  volume  is  an  attempt  —  and  it  seems  to  me 
an  unusually  successful  one  —  to  realize  under  class- 
room conditions  some  of  the  possibilities  for  improving 
rate  of  reading  which  have  been  suggested  in  the 
laboratory.  A  practicable  method  has  been  devised 
and  put  into  operation  with  regular  teachers  and  with- 


Xll  PREFACE 

out  requiring  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  class  time. 
Indeed,  the  method  is  simplicity  itself.  Taking  a  cue 
from  the  so-called  psychology  of  skill,  and  regarding 
the  improvement  of  eye-movements  as  analogous  to  the 
improvement  of  hand  movements  in  typewriting  and 
telegraphy,  the  author  has  provided  for  intensive 
effort  during  short  periods.  The  effort  is  specifically 
directed  toward  the  most  rapid  reading  which  is  con- 
sistent with  the  understanding  of  what  is  being  read. 
The  details  of  the  method  are  the  devices  used  to  stim- 
ulate and  maintain  effort. 

It  is  recorded  that  under  the  pressure  of  this  effort  the 
pupils  broke  to  new  high  levels  of  reading  rates.  These 
levels  were  no  doubt  accompanied  by  integrations  of 
short  eye-movements  into  longer  movements  just  as 
under  stress  Professor  Book's  typists  integrated  their 
movements  and  attained  "higher  order  habits." 

As  a  contribution  to  methods  of  teaching  silent 
reading,  this  book  will  be  regarded  as  significant.  It 
does  not  pretend  to  exhaust  the  subject.  The  plan 
has  rather  been  to  "divide  and  conquer"  -a  maxim 
as  valid  in  education  as  in  war.  The  author  has  recog- 
nized the  value  of  speed  and  has  set  up  a  way  to  attain 
it.  Although  he  has  also  provided  for  a  record  of 
comprehension,  he  has  done  so  chiefly  in  order  to  pre- 
vent its  deterioration  while  speed  was  being  developed. 
He  gives  evidence  tending  to  show  that  in  this  he  has 
succeeded.  His  method  is  so  readily  adaptable  to 
conditions  that  it  may  be  utilized  in  conjunction  with 


PREFACE  Xlll 

a  complete  method  of  teaching  silent  reading  which 
takes  account  of  the  varying  purposes  for  which  reading 
is  done.  Reduced,  for  example,  to  a  ten-minute  prac- 
tice period  a  day,  it  will  leave  time  for  the  different 
kinds  of  reading  which  have  been  identified  with  study  ; 
and  it  should  make  all  of  these  more  productive. 

B.  R.  BUCKINGHAM. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

THE  present  study  is  a  cooperative  investigation. 
It  represents  the  work  of  many  minds  and  many  hands. 
The  investigation  has  been  conducted  by  the  author, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Re- 
search at  the  University  of  Illinois.  To  the  Bureau 
the  writer  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  for  assistance 
of  many  and  varied  kinds. 

To  the  superintendents,  principals,  teachers,  and 
pupils  participating  in  this  investigation,  the  author's 
gratitude  is  due.  To  their  painstaking  labors  and 
careful  execution  of  directions,  much  of  the  success  of 
the  experiment  is  attributable. 

The  author  acknowledges  with  pleasure  the  courtesy 
of  the  College  of  Education  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
for  graciously  permitting  the  use  of  the  apparatus  for 
photographing  the  eye-movements  of  readers.  His 
thanks  are  likewise  due  to  Dean  W.  S.  Gray,  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  for  valuable  suggestions,  and 
to  Mr.  G.  T.  Buswell,  of  the  same  institution,  for  his 
work  in  developing  the  photographic  records. 

For  assistance  in  this  research  the  author  ac- 
knowledges his  indebtedness  to  Professor  B.  R.  Buck- 
ingham, Professor  D.  S.  Hill,  Professor  W.  W.  Charters, 
Professor'W.  S.  Monroe,  then  members  of  the  College 
of  Education  of  the  University  of  Illinois.  The  author 
is  also  grateful  to  Professor  I.  M.  Bentley,  of  the  De- 

XV 


XVI  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

partment  of  Psychology,  and  to  Professor  E.  C.  Cam- 
eron of  the  College  of  Education  of  the  University  of 
Illinois,  for  reading  many  chapters  of  the  manuscript 
and  for  helpful  suggestions  and  criticism. 

To  Professor  W.  W.  Charters,  formerly  Dean  of  the 
College  of  Education  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  the 
author  is  indebted  for  his  sympathetic  interest  and 
encouragement,  and  for  a  kindness  of  a  nature  quite 
apart  from  our  academic  relations.  He  wishes  to  ac- 
knowledge here  also  his  gratitude  to  Professor  G.  M. 
Whipple,  who  first  interested  him  in  the  experimental 
study  of  problems  in  educational  psychology. 

In  a  most  especial  manner  is  the  author  indebted  to 
Professor  B.  R.  Buckingham,  Director  of  the  Bureau 
of  Educational  Research,  under  whose  immediate  super- 
vision this  investigation  has  been  conducted.  Despite 
the  pressure  of  multitudinous  duties,  Professor  Buck- 
ingham's guidance  and  assistance  have  been  constant 
and  unfailing.  Whatever  of  merit  may  be  found  in 
the  present  study  is  due  in  a  large  measure  to  his  in- 
valuable directions  and  guidance ;  the  shortcomings 
represent  merely  the  author's  inability  to  profit  fully  by 
his  guidance. 

There  are  many  others  who  have  assisted  the  author 
in  various  ways.  Their  names,  though  too  numerous 
to  be  mentioned  here,  are  not  too  numerous  to  be  re- 
tained in  the  grateful  memory  of  the  author.  • 

J.  A.  O'B. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
May  14,  1920 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    INTRODUCTION:     RESUME  OP  PREVIOUS  INVESTIGA- 
TIONS         .        1 

II.    THE  PROBLEM 

III.  FACTORS  INFLUENCING  THE  RATE  OF  SILENT  READING 

IV.  TYPE  I.    TRAINING  IN  RAPID  SILENT  READING 

V.  TYPE  II.    TRAINING  TO  DECREASE  VOCALIZATION   . 

VI.  TYPE  III.    TRAINING  IN  PERCEPTION 

VII.  STATEMENT  OF  PROCEDURE 

VIII.  STATEMENT  OF  RESULTS 

IX.  INTERPRETATION  OF  RESULTS    .        . 

X.    PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORD  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS  DURING 

READING 232 

XI.    SUMMARY  OF  CONCLUSIONS 270 

XII.    BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 

XIII.    APPENDIX  .  281 


xvil 


SILENT  READING 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION:    RfiSUMfi  OF  PREVIOUS 
INVESTIGATIONS 

SINCE  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing  by  Johann 
Gutenberg  about  1448,  the  reading  of  printed  sym- 
bols has  continued  to  grow  in  importance  until  to-day 
it  constitutes  the  fundamental  subject  of  the  elementary 
school  curriculum.  More  than  one-fourth  of  the  total 
time  in  our  grade  schools  is  now  devoted  to  the  teaching 
of  reading,  according  to  a  recent  investigation  of  time 
distribution  (l).1  Indeed,  in  the  lower  grades,  little 
else  but  the  mastery  of  the  mechanics  of  reading  is 
attempted.  Dramatization,  games,  picture  cards, 
blackboard  exercises,  charts,  etc.,  find  their  essential 
raison  d'etre  in  the  assistance  they  render  to  the  child 
in  his  attempt  to  interpret  the  printed  symbols.  Prob- 
ably 70  per  cent  of  the  time  in  the  primary  grades  is 
devoted  to  exercises  which  have  as  their  aim  the  inter- 

1  Numbers  in  parentheses  refer  to  the  corresponding  numbers  in  the 
bibliography  at  the  end  of  the  book. 


2  SILENT  READING 

pretation  of  the  written  word.  This  is  but  natural, 
since  reading  constitutes  the  basic  instrument  which 
enables  one  to  penetrate  the  mines  of  information 
not  only  in  all  the  branches  of  the  curriculum,  but  on 
every  topic  that  has  been,  at  some  time  or  other,  the 
object  of  human  study  and  investigation.  This 
information  remains  locked  up  securely  within  the 
printed  letters  of  the  alphabet,  forever  hidden  from 
the  illiterate,  for  it  can  be  reached  only  through  the 
medium  of  reading. 

The  method  of  teaching  the  mechanics  of  reading 
which  held  undisputed  sway  throughout  the  centuries 
was  inherited  from  the  ancients.  Tracing  with  the 
stylus  the  various  characters  of  their  alphabet  upon 
waxen  tablets  and  on  papyrus,  the  pedagogues  of  an- 
cient Greece  and  Rome  taught  their  pupils  the  names 
and  phonic  properties  of  each  letter  as  the  first  and 
indispensable  step  in  the  process  of  learning  to  read. 
What  could  appear  more  logical  than  to  postulate  a 
priori  that  before  a  child  could  read  or  pronounce  any 
word  he  must  know  the  names  and  sounds  of  the 
constituent  letters  of  the  word?  How  could  a  whole 
word,  consisting,  as  it  does,  of  several  letters,  possibly 
be  pronounced  unless  one  had  first  mastered  the  pro- 
nunciation of  each  of  the  letters  making  up  the  total 
word  ?  The  fact  that  the  word  itself  might  be  as  simple 
and  as  clearly  a  unit  of  sound  as  the  letter,  seems 
never  to  have  disturbed  their  serene  acceptance 
of  the  above  principle.  Unchallenged  and  unques- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

tioned  the  alphabetic  method  remained  in  almost  uni- 
versal use  in  the  schools  of  the  world  until  the  last 
quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  remained  for 
the  new  science  of  experimental  psychology  to  demon- 
strate conclusively  that  the  mode  of  procedure  in  the 
learning  process  which  would  appear  to  the  adult  as 
the  logical  order  is  not  de  facto  always  the  mode  of 
procedure  which  the  mind  of  the  child  actually  takes. 
In  other  words,  there  has  been  shown  to  be  a  psycholog- 
ical order  of  procedure  which  is  totally  distinct  and 
different  from  the  order  of  procedure  deduced  by  the 
adult  from  the  laws  of  formal  logic  (2). 

PSYCHOLOGICAL  FINDINGS  MODIFY  METHODS  OF 
TEACHING  THE  MECHANICS  OF  READING 

The  studies  of  Cattell  (3)  at  Leipzig  in  1886 
on  the  perceptual  process  resulted  in  producing 
strong  evidence  that,  as  a  general  rule,  reading  proceeds 
not  by  successive  letters,  but  rather  by  word-,  phrase-, 
and  sentence-wholes.  This  conclusion  was  based  upon 
the  fact  that  the  time  required  to  perceive  a  whole  word 
and,  in  some  cases,  whole  phrases  and  short  sentences, 
was  no  greater  than  the  time  required  to  perceive  a 
single  letter.  Consciousness  grasped  whole  words, 
phrases,  and  short  sentences  as  units  hi  the  perceptual 
process.  Goldscheider  and  Mueller's  investigation 
(4)  showing  that  an  enlargement  of  the  perceptual  span 
resulted  when  meaningless  geometrical  lines  were  ar- 
ranged in  a  meaningful  geometrical  figure,  such  as  a 


4  SILENT   READING 

rectangle,  likewise  offered  corroborative  evidence. 
But  the  convincing  confirmation  of  the  above  con- 
clusion was  presented  when  Erdmann  and  Dodge 
(5)  after  many  tachistoscopical  exposures,  found  that 
"words  may  be  recognized  when  the  individual  letters 
are  too  small  to  be  identified  or  when  parts  of  the  word 
are  out  of  the  range  of  clear  vision." 

Along  with  the  wealth  of  corroborative  data  from 
similar  experimental  investigations,  the  above  studies 
show  that  the  assumption  underlying  the  traditional 
alphabetical  method,  namely,  that  the  reading  process 
proceeds  by  successive  letters,  and  not  by  word-, 
phrase-,  and  sentence-wholes,  is  without  scientific 
foundation.  Showing  indirectly,  therefore,  that  the 
word  and  the  sentence  methods  more  closely  approxi- 
mate the  perceptual  process,  these  findings  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  discard  of  the  time-honored  alpha- 
betical method  —  the  result  of  tradition  and  crude  em- 
piricism —  and  the  adoption  of  the  word  and  sentence 
methods  with  consequent  greater  fruitfulness  by  the 
more  progressive  schools.  These  and  similar  studies, 
conducted  under  the  strong  stimulus  of  the  new  science 
of  experimental  psychology,  have  exercised  a  powerful 
influence  upon  the  teaching  of  reading  and  are  largely 
responsible  for  the  fundamental  and  far-reaching 
changes  that  have  been  wrought  in  the  technique  of 
teaching  the  mechanics  of  reading  during  the  last 
forty  years.  They  have  shown,  furthermore,  the 
necessity  of  submitting  all  the  traditional  methods 


INTRODUCTION 

and  conventional  assumptions  underlying  the  teaching 
of  reading  to  critical  experimental  examination. 

MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  EYES  DURING  THE  READING 
PROCESS 

Probably  not  less  rich  in  promise  of  supplying 
valuable  data  for  the  development  of  types  or  methods 
of  effective  training  in  speed  and  comprehension  in 
silent  reading,  in  the  stages  subsequent  to  the  mastery 
of  the  mechanics  of  reading  than  the  above  mentioned 
studies  of  the  perceptual  process,  are  the  experimental 
investigations  into  the  nature  of  the  motor  behavior 
of  the  eyes  during  the  reading  process.  The  origin  of 
these  investigations,  like  those  concerned  with  the 
nature  of  the  perceptual  process,  dates  largely  from 
the  rise  of  the  science  of  experimental  psychology  in 
1870. 

The  history  of  the  evolution  of  the  mechanical 
apparatus  necessary  for  the  experimental  study  of  eye- 
movements  has  been  narrated  by  Huey  (6),  who  him- 
self became  one  of  the  most  prominent  investigators 
through  devising  and  perfecting  a  mechanical  appara- 
tus which  registered,  with  some  degree  of  success,  the 
movements  of  the  eyes  during  the  reading  process. 
More  recently,  W.  A.  Schmidt  (7)  has  sketched  in 
briefer  fashion  the  evolution  of  this  equipment,  supple- 
menting Huey's  account  with  the  story  of  the  develop- 
ments down  to  1917.  The  present  investigation 
actually  utilized  the  mechanical  apparatus  that  was 


6  SILENT  READING 

finally  evolved  to  photograph  eye-movements  during 
reading.  Since  the  types  of  training  for  the  develop- 
ment of  efficiency  in  silent  reading,  which  will  be  pre- 
sented in  this  book,  are  based  very  largely  upon  the  find- 
ings of  the  experimental  investigations  of  the  behavior  of 
the  eyes  during  reading,  as  well  as  upon  the  tachisto- 
scopic  studies  of  the  perceptual  process,  it  is  thought 
that  a  brief  outline  of  the  chief  stages  of  the  development 
of  this  apparatus  will  help  to  supply  the  necessary 
background  for  any  who  may  not  be  familiar  with  it. 

Javal  (8)  of  the  University  of  Paris  in  1879,  employ- 
ing direct  observation  by  means  of  a  mirror,  in  contrast 
to  the  after-image  method  of  Volkmann  and  Lamansky, 
was  the  first  to  discover  that  the  passage  of  the  eyes 
across  a  line  in  reading  is  not  a  continuous  movement, 
but  is  broken  into  a  number  of  pauses  and  movements. 
In  1897  Erdmann  and  Dodge  (5)  in  their  experimenta- 
tion at  the  University  of  Halle,  besides  the  mirror 
method  of  observation,  introduced  to  advantage  the 
use  of  the  telescope.  Lamare  (9),  working  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Javal,  fastened  a  microphone  to  the  upper 
eyelid,  thus  enabling  him  to  determine,  in  a  general 
way,  from  the  sounds,  the  number  of  fixations  in  read- 
ing a  given  line.  Doctor  Ahrens  (10),  at  the  University 
of  Rostock  in  1891,  fastened  a  small  ivory  cup  to  the 
cornea  of  the  eye  and  sought  by  means  of  a  rod  at- 
tached to  the  cup  to  have  the  eye  movements  recorded 
on  a  smoked  drum.  Though  unsuccessful,  the  attempt 
was  instrumental  in  suggesting  to  subsequent  investi- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

gators,  a  method  which,  if  perfected,  would  yield  rich 
results.  A  plaster  of  Paris  cup  was  later  substituted 
for  the  ivory  cup  by  Professor  Delabarre  (11)  of  Har- 
vard. 

It  remained  for  Huey,  however,  to  perfect  this  general 
type  of  apparatus  and  to  secure  permanent  records  of 
eye-movements.  After  considerable  experimentation 
in  directly  photographing  the  eyes,  Dodge  (13)  finally 
succeeded  in  photographing  "the  movement  of  a  bright 
vertical  line  as  it  was  reflected  from  the  cornea,"  thus 
giving  a  fairly  reliable  record  of  eye-movements  un- 
disturbed by  the  unnatural  condition  of  a  cup  or  other 
device  pressing  upon  one  of  the  eyes.  Dearborn  (14) 
introduced  the  use  of  double  lenses,  thus  enabling  him 
to  obtain  records  of  binocular  reading.  Judd  (15) 
further  improved  the  apparatus  by  employing  a  kine- 
toscope  double  camera,  thus  enabling  records  of  eye- 
movements  in  both  the  horizontal  and  vertical  planes 
to  be  secured.  Various  other  refinements  have  been 
introduced  by  Freeman,  C.  T.  Gray,  and  W.  A.  Schmidt 
while  experimenting  at  the  University  of  Chicago. 

The  evolution  of  this  mechanical .  apparatus  has 
rendered  possible  the  carrying  out  of  many  investiga- 
tions which  have  thrown  considerable  light  on  such 
points  as  the  number  of  fixations  per  line,  the  duration 
of  the  fixations,  the  length  of  the  eye-movements,  and 
the  relative  time  consumed  in  pauses  and  movements. 
Only  those  investigations  will  be  referred  to  here 
which  have  in  some  way  afforded  clues  for  the  develop- 


8  SILENT   READING 

ment  of  the  types  of  training  that  will  be  described 
later,  or  which  have  presented  problems  upon  which 
the  present  study  may  be  expected  to  yield  additional 
data.  Since  the  total  time  spent  in  reading  consists 
of  the  time  consumed  by  the  eye-movements,  plus  the 
time  required  by  the  fixations,  an  investigation  seeking 
to  economize  the  length  of  time  required  in  reading 
will  naturally  be  concerned  in  determining  at  which 
of  the  constituent  time-consuming  processes  —  move- 
ments or  fixations  —  the  economy  can  be  most  satis- 
factorily effected. 

/.    Inter  fixation  Movements 

Using  the  after-image  method,  Javal,  the  discoverer 
of  the  discontinuous  movement  of  the  eyes  in  reading, 
estimated  the  velocity  of  the  interfixation  movements 
to  be  so  great  as  to  prevent  clear  vision.  On  the  basis 
of  certain  investigations,  Erdmann  and  Dodge  (5) 
calculated  that  only  from  one-thirteenth  to  one-twenty- 
fourth  of  the  total  time  required  for  the  eyes  to  cross 
a  given  line  was  consumed  by  the  interfixation  move- 
ments. Quite  the  reverse  of  the  popular  conception 
that  had  long  prevailed  that  the  total  time  spent  in 
reading  was  consumed  during  the  passage  of  the  eyes 
across  the  printed  line,  Erdmann  and  Dodge  found  that 
almost  the  entire  time  was  taken  up  by  the  pauses,  or 
fixations  of  the  eyes  at  various  points  in  their  journey 
across  the  line.  The  investigations  made  by  Huey  (12), 
Dodge  and  Kline,  Dearborn,  and  more  recently  by  C.  T. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

Gray  and  W.  A.  Schmidt,  in  measuring  the  rapidity 
of    the    interfixation    movements,    have    conclusively 
confirmed  the  findings  of  Erdmann  and  Dodge.     With 
such  lightninglike   velocity  do   the  eyes  move   from 
fixation-point  to  fixation-point,  that  it  is  now  generally  , 
agreed  that  fusion  of  stimuli  occurs,  so  that,  as  far  as/ 
purposes  of  clear  perception  are  concerned,  the  eyes/ 
are  practically  "blind"  during  these  movements. 

The  experimentation  of  Holt  (16),  leading  him  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  movements  of  the  eyes  produced 
"a  momentary  visual  central  anaesthesia,"  confirmed 
the  findings  of  Dodge,  which  were  again  corroborated 
by  Dearborn  (17).  From  these  findings,  it  is  evident 
that  the  interfixation  movements,  consuming,  as  they 
do,  such  a  small  fraction  of  the  total  reading  time, 
do  not  constitute  the  processes  in  the  reading  complex 
wherein  any  great  economy  of  time  can  be  effected. 
The  question  is,  however,  whether  the  development 
of  a  habit  of  increased  rapidity  of  silent  reading 
would  measurably  affect  the  speed  of  the  movement  of 
the  eyes  from  fixation  to  fixation,  as  well  as  the  return 
sweep  from  the  end  of  one  line  to  the  beginning  of  the 
following,  or  whether,  in  spite  of  a  considerable  increase 
in  speed  of  reading,  the  rate  of  these  movements  would 
remain  unchanged.  By  measuring  the  rate  of 
these  movements  before  giving  the  training  which 
resulted  in  the  establishment  of  habits  of  greatly 
increased  speed  in  silent  reading,  and  then  by 
measuring  the  rate  of  these  movements  subsequent 


10  SILENT   READING 

to  the  acquisition  of  this  increased  rapidity  in  reading, 
data  have  been  secured  which  are  of  value  in  the 
formulation  of  at  least  a  tentative  answer  to  the  above 
query. 

//.    The  Fixation-Pauses 

The  processes  of  the  reading  complex  which  consume 
the  bulk  of  the  time,  in  fact  from  twelve-thirteenths 
to  twenty-three-twenty-fourths  of  the  total  reading 
time,  are  the  fixations  or  pauses  which  the  eyes  make  at 
various  points  in  their  journey  across  the  printed  line. 
These  pauses,  the  duration  and  number  of  which  have 
been  disclosed  to  us  by  experimentation,  constitute 
the  real  "core"  of  the  physiological  process  under- 
lying the  mental  act  of  reading.  Since  the  eyes 
while  moving  are  incapable  of  clear  vision,  owing 
to  the  velocity  with  which  they  move  from 
fixation  to  fixation  and  sweep  back  from  the  end  of  one 
line  to  the  beginning  of  the  next,  it  follows  that  what- 
ever clear  vision  occurs  must  take  place  during  the 
brief  momentary  fixation-pauses.  Upon  these  fixation- 
pauses  a  large  number  of  painstaking  investigations 
requiring  an  elaborate  equipment  have  been  focused, 
with  a  view  to  determining  chiefly  their  location, 
duration,  and  number  per  line. 

The  investigations  of  Dodge,  of  Huey,  and  especially 
of  Dearborn  have  shown  that  fixations  occur  in  every 
part  of  a  word  as  well  as  between  words,  and  are  ap- 
parently subject  to  no  definite  law  of  occurrence.  It 


INTRODUCTION  11 

is  the  number  and  the  duration  of  pauses  that  are  of 
chief  interest  in  a  study  that  seeks  to  accelerate  the 
reading  rate.  For  the  total  reading  time  may  be  said 
to  be  the  product  of  the  number  of  pauses,  multiplied 
by  their  average  duration,  plus,  of  course,  the  very 
slight  fraction  of  the  total  time  —  one-thirteenth  to 
one-twenty-fourth  —  consumed  by  the  eye-movements. 

(a)  Number  of  Fixation  Pauses.  Investigations  have 
revealed  in  this  case,  as  elsewhere  in  educational  psy- 
chology, the  existence  of  great  individual  differences. 
Dearborn  reports  that  his  subjects  in  reading  silently  the 
same  selections  from  a  newspaper  averaged  from  3.0  to 
7.1  pauses  per  line.  In  number  of  words  perceived  per 
fixation,  the  average  ranged  from  1.9  to  1.0  words. 
W.  A.  Schmidt  reports  a  range  of  averages  from  4.1 
to  10.8  pauses  per  line  in  silent  reading,  and  6.1  to  11.5 
pauses  per  line  in  oral  reading.  For  Schmidt's  adult 
silent  readers,  the  averages  ranged  from  2.15  to  0.93 
words  per  fixation,  and  in  the  case  of  oral  reading  the 
same  subjects  averaged  from  1.52  to  0.87  words.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  number  of  pauses  per  line  is  depend- 
ent upon  the  number  of  words  perceived  per  fixation  — 
the  fewer  the  number  of  pauses  the  more  extensive  must 
be  the  perceptual  span. 

(6)  Duration  of  Fixation-Pause.  Of  equal  impor- 
tance in  determining  the  total  amount  of  time  consumed 
in  reading,  is  the  duration  of  the  pauses.  The  number 
and  the  average  duration  of  the  pauses  form,  as  it  were, 
the  multiplier  and  the  multiplicand  of  approximately 


12  SILENT   READING 

the  total  reading  time  product,  which  latter  cannot, 
of  course,  be  computed,  if  either  of  the  preceding 
are  undetermined.  Only  comparatively  recently  has 
the  experimental  apparatus  been  evolved  to  secure 
accurate  measurements  of  the  duration  of  pauses. 
Huey  reports  that  his  subjects  averaged  approximately 
185<7.  *  Dearborn,  with  more  accurate  apparatus,  re- 
ports a  range  in  averages  for  his  five  subjects  from  160.8<r 
to  401. 9cr.  Schmidt  (18)  reports  a  range  of  averages 
for  his  silent  readers  from  214<r  to470<r,  his  elementary 
pupils  averaging  from  264<r  to  438o- 

Types  of  training  to  develop  habits  of  speed  which 
result  in  a  considerable  reduction  of  the  total  reading 
time  obviously  must  either  diminish  the  number  of 
pauses  or  reduce  their  duration,  or  else  effect  a  decrease 
in  both.  At  the  expense  of  which  one  of  these  processes 
is  the  economy  of  time  to  be  secured? 

From  his  elaborate  experimental  investigation  of  eye- 
movements,  fixation-pauses,  etc.,  Schmidt  concludes 
"that  a  momentary  silent  reading  at  maximal  rather 
than  normal  rate  involves  a  shortening  of  the  duration  of 
the  pauses  rather  than  a  lessening  of  their  number.  But 
this  leaves  unsolved  the  problem  as  to  what  would 
happen  if  the  subjects  were  to  engage  in  practice  extend- 
ing over  a  considerable  period  of  time,  gradually  forming 
habits  of  reading  at  maximal  rate."  This  he  classes  as 
one  of  the  "interesting  but  as  yet  unsolved  problems" 
in  the  psychology  of  reading.  The  present  study, 

1  Sigma  (<r)  is  ^^  of  a  second. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

through  its  formulation  of  types  of  training  for  the 
development  of  speed  in  silent  reading  and  through  its 
application  of  these  methods  of  training  to  pupils  in 
various  grades  of  the  elementary  school  for  a  period 
of  two  months,  has  sought  to  establish  just  such  habits 
of  reading  at  maximal  rates.  It  is  thought  that  the 
photographic  records  of  the  eye-movements  of  some 
of  these  pupils  taken  before  and  after  the  acquisition 
of  this  habit  of  rapid  silent  reading,  will  yield  some  in- 
teresting and  valuable  data  upon  this  particular  problem. 

COMPARISON  OF  SILENT  AND  ORAL  READING 

/.    By  Means  of  Photographic  Records  of 
Eye-Movements 

The  most  important  of  the  recent  contributions 
to  the  experimental  study  of  the  reading  process 
have  come  from  investigators  working  at  the 
University  of  Chicago.  An  elaborate  experimental 
study  of  the  motor  behavior  of  the  eyes  during  the 
reading  process  has  been  made  by  W.  A.  Schmidt  (7). 
His  comparison  of  the  photographic  records  of  oral 
and  silent  reading  by  adults,  high  school  pupils, 
and  elementary  school  pupils  is  significant  and 
instructive.  His  records  reveal  the  physiological  basis 
of  the  superiority  of  silent  over  oral  reading  in  point 
of  both  speed  and  comprehension.  Thus,  his  group 
of  45  adult  persons  averaged  1.7  more  pauses  per  line 
in  oral  than  in  silent  reading,  while  the  average  dura- 


14  SILENT   READING 

tion  per  pause  was  72.6<r  greater  in  the  former  than  in 
the  latter.  This  made  the  average  fixation  time  per 
line  1119.1er  longer  for  the  same  subjects  when  read- 
ing orally  than  when  reading  silently. 

The  smaller  number  of  fixations  per  line  and  the 
shorter  duration  of  the  fixations  may  be  said  to  con- 
stitute, in  a  general  way,  the  chief  physiological  basis  of 
the  superior  speed  of  silent  over  oral  reading.  The  clos- 
est index  to  the  physiological  basis  of  the  superior  com- 
prehension in  silent  reading  may  be  said  to  be  the  smaller 
number  of  refixations  per  line.  A  refixation  is  a  regres- 
sion of  the  eyes  to  an  anterior  portion  of  the  line,  which 
portion  has  been  already  once  fixated  but  which  has 
evidently  not  been  comprehended.  The  refixation  ap- 
pears necessary  to  complete  the  understanding  of  the 
line.  The  group  of  adults  averaged  74  per  cent  more 
refixations  per  line  in  oral  than  in  silent  reading ;  the 
high  school  pupils  55  per  cent  more ;  and  the  elementary 
school  pupils  62  per  cent  more.  Schmidt  reports  that 
his  subjects  "read  57  per  cent  more  material  silently 
than  orally." 

On  the  strength  of  his  investigation  Schmidt  draws 
the  following  significant  conclusion  : 

"There  is  in  evidence  in  connection  with  silent  reading  a 
very  definite  tendency  towards  positive  correlation  between 
the  rate  and  comprehension,  rapid  readers  representing  a 
higher  quality  of  comprehension  than  the  slow.  No  such 
correlation  is  in  evidence  in  the  case  of  the  oral  reading.  In 
fact,  there  are  some  indications  that  an  increase  in  rate  may 


INTRODUCTION  15 

be  inconsistent  with  good  quality  of  comprehension.  The 
difference  between  the  two  types  of  reading  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  more  marked  had  the  subjects  been 
trained  to  distinguish  between  the  two.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
reading  has  until  recently  been  taught  so  poorly  that  it  is 
extremely  hazardous  to  speak  of  standards  for  either  type 
of  reading  as  well  as  standard  differences  between  the  two 
types.  Training  in  silent  reading  has  been  almost  unthought 
of  and  whatever  may  have  been  accomplished  in  the  case  of 
oral  reading  during  the  earlier  grades  has  not  infrequently 
been  undone  because  of  indifferent  practices  in  connection 
with  the  later  grades." 

C.  T.  Gray  (19),  in  an  investigation  recently  con- 
ducted at  the  University  of  Chicago,  has  contributed 
additional  valuable  data  on  the  types  of  reading 
ability  determined  through  standard  tests  and  labora- 
tory experiments.  His  findings  likewise  emphasize 
the  superior  efficiency  of  silent  over  oral  reading. 
The  methods  employed  by  him  in  the  experi- 
mental laboratory  to  increase  the  speed  and  compre- 
hension of  two  individual  subjects  have  largely  fur- 
nished the  clues  for  the  formulation  and  development 
of  types  of  training  which  have  been  adapted  for  class- 
room procedure  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the 
school.  In  the  eighteenth  yearbook,  W.  S.  Gray  (20) 
elaborates  these  and  other  factors  tending  to  condition 
the  efficiency  of  silent  reading.  Though  the  types  of 
training  to  be  presented  in  this  book  had  been 
formulated  before  the  appearance  of  the  yearbook, 
it  is  believed  that  all  of  Gray's  main  suggestions 


16  SILENT   READING 

have  been  incorporated  in  the  development  of  the  types 
of  training  in  the  present  study.  Judd  (21)  has  also 
greatly  stimulated  interest  in  the  nature  of  the  reading 
process  by  his  recent  monograph  in  which  he  interprets 
the  meaning  of  the  photographic  records  of  eye- 
movements,  fixation-pauses,  etc.,  and  points  out  their 
diagnostic  value  to  teachers  of  reading.  The  present 
study  has  attempted  to  utilize  many  of  his  suggestions 
for  increasing  efficiency  in  silent  reading. 

//.    By  Means  of  Standard  Tests 

Significant  as  are  the  findings  of  the  psychological 
investigation  and  the  laboratory  experiments  in  dis- 
closing the  functioning  of  the  various  constituent  pro- 
cesses of  the  reading  complex,  showing,  as  they  do, 
the  physiological  basis  of  the  superior  efficiency  of 
silent  over  oral  reading,  it  is  chiefly  the  mass  of  investi- 
gations wherein  the  efficiency  of  school  products  has 
been  measured  by  the  simple  standardized  tests  that 
have  convinced  and  are  still  convincing  practical 
school  men  and  women  of  the  superiority  of  silent  over 
oral  reading,  both  in  point  of  speed  and  comprehension. 
The  application  of  a  variety  of  scientific  standardized 
reading  tests  to  pupils  in  the  elementary  school,  high 
school,  and  college  has  resulted  in  the  accumulation  of 
voluminous  data  confirming  the  above  conclusions  of 
the  experimental  laboratory. 

(a)  Comparison  of  Rates.  In  1913  Pintner  (22) 
conducted  an  investigation  with  twenty-three  pupils 


INTRODUCTION  17 

in  the  fourth  grade  in  which  he  found  that  the  pupils 
reading  silently  averaged  eight  lines  more  per  minute 
than  when  reading  orally  —  a  superiority  of  40  per  cent 
in  point  of  speed.  Oberholtzer's  (23)  investigation 
of  the  rate  of  silent  and  oral  reading,  as  shown  by  test- 
ing 1800  elementary  school  pupils  in  grades  three  to 
eight,  yielded  superior  averages  for  silent  reading  in 
all  of  the  six  grades  examined.  Starting  in  the  third 
grade  with  an  average  superiority  of  0.2  more  words 
per  second  when  reading  silently  than  when  reading 
orally,  the  superiority  of  silent  reading  in  point  of  speed 
continued  to  manifest  itself  increasingly  through  all  the 
grades,  until,  in  the  eighth  grade,  the  pupils  read  ap- 
proximately one  complete  word  more  per  second  silently 
than  they  did  orally  —  the  averages  being  3.9  and  4.8 
respectively. 

The  investigation  of  Meade  (24)  with  100  sixth  grade 
pupils,  and  especially  the  extensive  study  reported  by 
Judd  covering  all  the  grades  in  44  different  schools, 
prove  the  greater  rapidity  of  silent  over  oral  reading 
beyond  all  shadow  of  doubt.  This  conclusion,  after 
all,  is  only  what  one  would  naturally  be  led  to  expect. 
For  vocalization  involving  rather  elaborate  movements 
of  the  lips,  tongue,  vocal  chords,  and  general  throat 
mechanism  is  a  much  slower  process  than  visualization. 
Consequently,  in  oral  exhibition,  the  reader  is  obliged 
to  retard  the  rate  of  visualization  in  order  that  the 
more  tedious  process  of  vocalization  may  keep  pace 
with  it.  Synchronization  of  the  vocal  and  visual 


18  SILENT   READING 

records  of  oral  readers,  as  secured  through  an  elaborate 
mechanical  equipment  in  an  investigation,  the  results 
of  which  are  soon  to  be  published  by  G.  T.  Buswell  in 
his  dissertation  for  the  doctorate  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  offer  corroboration  of  the  above  conclusion. 

(6)  Comparison  of  Comprehension.  Not  only  is  silent 
reading  more  rapid  than  oral  reading  but  it  is  also 
superior  in  point  of  comprehension  of  the  matter  read. 
Though  oral  reading  secures  more  time  for  the  process 
of  comprehension,  yet  the  division  of  attention  which 
oral  exhibition  necessitates,  drawing  part  to  the  task 
of  articulation  and  enunciation,  and  part  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  content,  seems  more  than  to  counter- 
balance the  first  apparent  advantage.  The  effort  to 
enunciate  correctly,  to  stress  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  the  rhetorician,  renders  difficult  that  strong 
concentration  of  attention  upon  the  content  side  which 
is  the  sine  qua  non  of  effective  thought  mastery,  and 
which  is  more  readily  obtainable  in  simple  visualiza- 
tion. 

The  results  of  testing  by  means  of  various  forms 
of  reproduction  of  the  matter  read  serve  to  ree'nforce 
the  above  conclusion.  Meade  reports  that  all  the 
sixth  grade  classes  reproduced  more  effectively  when 
they  read  silently  than  when  they  read  orally.  Pintner 
reports  that  a  greater  percentage  of  points  were  re- 
produced by  his  fourth  grade  pupils  when  they  read 
silently.  As  a  result  of  their  investigation  in  1916, 
Pintner  and  Gilliland  (25)  draw  the  following  conclu- 


INTRODUCTION  19 

sion :  "the  silent  reading  of  the  adult  is  quicker  than 
the  oral  reading  and  at  the  same  time  the  number  of 
ideas  remembered  is  slightly  greater,  certainly  much 
greater  per  unit  of  time." 

(c)  Correlation  between  Speed  of  Reading  and  Quality 
of  Comprehension.  Besides  demonstrating  the  greater 
efficiency  of  silent  over  oral  reading  in  point  of  speed 
and  comprehension  a  number  of  investigations  have 
shown  the  existence  of  a  positive  correlation  between 
rapidity  of  reading  and  quality  of  comprehension. 
As  far  back  as  1897,  Quantz's  (26)  study  led  him  to 
conclude  that  the  rapid  readers  average  approximately 
37  per  cent  superiority  over  slow  readers  in  the  quality 
of  their  work.  He  observed  then,  what  later  researches 
have  confirmed,  that  the  memory  in  the  case  of  rapid 
readers  seems  to  be  more  accurate,  introducing  in  the 
reproduction  of  the  matter  read  less  extraneous  matter 
than  in  the  case  of  slower  readers.  As  a  result  of  his 
study  reported  in  1911,  Hendricks  (27)  concluded: 
"in  the  percentage  of  thought  reproduced  the  rapid 
readers  excel,  giving  91  per  cent  of  the  thought  as  com- 
pared with  76  per  cent  reproduced  by  slow  readers." 
After  an  extensive  study  of  1831  pupils  Judd  (28)  re- 
ports :  "These  figures  serve  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
good  readers  are  usually  not  slow  and  poor  readers  are 
usually  not  fast.  It  will  be  shown  later,  in  detail,  that 
rate  is  parallel  in  a  majority  of  cases  with  general  effi- 
ciency in  reading.  For  the  moment,  it  is  enough  to 
point  out  the  chief  reason  why  ability  to  read  rapidly 


20  SILENT   READING 

is  a  fair  measure  of  the  mastery  which  the  reader  has  of 
the  printed  page.  The  poor  reader  is  one  who  is  unable 
to  pass  readily  from  the  printed  symbol  to  the  meaning. 
For  the  poor  reader  the  mere  mechanical  processes  are 
obstacles  and  he  loses  time  in  trying  to  perform  the 
preliminary  acts  which  are  necessary  before  he  can  com- 
prehend the  passage.  In  the  case  of  the  good  reader, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  mechanics  of  the  process  are 
very  fluent  and  rapid.  The  proficient  reader  has  mas- 
tered the  words  and  moves  on  without  hesitation  to  the 
meaning."  W.  S.  Gray  (20)  thus  aptly  epitomizes  the 
experimental  findings  on  this  point :  "The  rapid  reader 
is  usually  more  efficient  than  the  slow  reader." 

SILENT  READING  THOUGH  MOST  IMPORTANT  Is 
NEGLECTED  BY  THE  SCHOOL 

Though  investigations  have  shown  the  superior 
speed  of  silent  reading  and  its  greater  efficiency  as  a 
basic  instrument  for  the  gathering  of  thought  and  ideas 
from  the  printed  symbols,  yet  one  finds  that  the  schools 
not  only  teach  reading  as  an  oral  exercise  but  stress 
that  side  to  the  almost  complete  exclusion  and  dis- 
regard of  silent  reading.  There  is  no  place  in  the  cur- 
riculum in  the  overwhelming  majority  of  our  schools 
for  silent  reading.  But  may  not  this  apparent  anomaly 
find  its  justification  on  the  grounds  of  the  greater  use 
to  which  oral  reading  is  put?  Frequency  or  ex- 
tensiveness  of  use  has  come  to  be  considered  probably 
the  strongest  criterion  determining  not  only  the  inclu- 


INTRODUCTION  21 

sion  or  exclusion  of  the  various  parts  of  a  subject 
but  also  the  relative  stress  to  be  placed  upon  them. 
This  is  on  the  very  reasonable  ground  which  finds 
expression  in  the  query:  "Why  teach  something  that 
is  never,  or  at  most,  seldom  to  be  used?"  It  is  pre- 
cisely here  that  the  case  for  silent  reading  scores  its 
strongest  point.  How  often  does  the  average  person 
have  occasion  for  oral  exhibition  ?  The  writer  has  been 
present  in  several  classes  in  which  the  students  were 
asked  to  recall  one  instance  of  oral  reading  outside  of 
the  school  in  the  past  month.  The  instance  was  not 
forthcoming. 

The  plain  facts  are  that  the  occasions  requiring 
oral  exhibition  from  either  the  adult  or  the  pupil  are 
notoriously  few  in  life.  Practically  all  the  reading 
of  the  average  person  is  done  silently.  He  reads  the 
newspaper,  the  magazine,  the  scientific  journal,  the 
novel,  not  for  purposes  of  oral  display,  but  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  gathering  the  thoughts  and  ideas  contained 
therein.  Consequently  the  training  in  oral  reading 
which  lasts  throughout  all  the  grades  of  the  elementary 
school  seldom,  if  ever,  functions  in  actual  life.  But 
for  the  silent  type  of  reading  which  a  person  is  obliged 
to  use  almost  daily  during  his  school  career  as  well  as 
subsequently,  the  school  has  made  no  attempt  to  train. 
And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  school  is  supposed 
to  train  for  the  subsequent  activities  of  actual  life,  and 
to  have  its  own  activities  approximate,  as  closely  as 
possible,  the  real  conditions  of  life. 


22  SILENT   READING 

STRESS  ON  ORAL  READING  DETRIMENTAL  TO 
EFFECTIVE  SILENT  READING 

Failing  to  perceive  the  necessity  of  preparing  the 
pupil  for  this  important  activity  in  which  men  and 
women  in  every  vocation  of  life  must  engage,  the  school 
not  only  fails  to  train  the  pupil  for  this  kind  of  work, 
but  actually  builds  up  fixed  habits  of  word-pronuncia- 
tion and  articulation  of  a  slow,  plodding  character 
which  many  investigators  allege  are  almost  ruinous  to 
the  formation  of  the  opposite  habits  of  rapid,  effective, 
silent  reading,  of  the  meaningful  type.  While  it  is  true 
that  clear  and  distinct  articulation  and  accurate  pro- 
nunciation are  necessary  for  correct  speech  and  are 
acquirements  of  no  doubtful  value,  for  which  the  school 
must  train,  yet  it  is  necessary  to  recognize  that  correct 
enunciation  is  not  synonymous  with  reading,  which 
consists  essentially  in  the  gathering  of  thought  from  the 
printed  page.  It  is  quite  a  distinct  process,  and  should 
be  taught  as  such,  in  a  period  set  aside  for  the  specific 
task  of  word-pronouncing,  syllabication,  articulation, 
and  the  explanation  of  the  phonic  properties  of  the 
various  letters. 

The  distinction  between  these  two  types  of  work  is 
fundamental  and  cannot  be  emphasized  too  strongly. 
The  failure  of  many  schools  to  recognize  it  has  led 
them  to  the  confusing  assumption  that  in  teaching 
articulation,  the  phonic  properties  of  words,  and  accu- 
rate word-pronouncing  they  are  teaching  reading. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

The  result  of  this  stress  on  the  oral  side  has  been  to 
focus  the  attention  largely  upon  the  pronunciation, 
with  a  corresponding  loss  to  the  comprehension.  In- 
deed, the  number  of  pupils  whose  minds  are  found 
to  be  practically  blank  when  stopped  suddenly 
and  asked  to  tell  what  they  had  just  been  reading 
aloud,  has  seldom  failed  to  astonish  the  teachers 
who  have  occasionally  employed  this  simple  checking 
device.  It  shows  how  detrimental  alike  to  speed  and  to 
effective  comprehension  is  the  exclusive  teaching  of  the 
oral  aspect  of  reading. 

While  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  teach- 
ing of  reading  has  made  many  strides  forward  since  the 
days  of  Horace  Mann,  yet  it  would  seem  that  some 
points  of  similarity  still  persist,  as  is  evident  from  the 
following  description  of  the  results  of  the  teaching  of 
reading  as  reported  by  him  to  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Education  in  1838.  The  passage  is  quoted 
by  Judd,  as  follows : 

"  I  have  devoted  especial  pains  to  learn  with  some  degree  of 
numerical  accuracy  how  far  the  reading,  in  our  schools,  is  an 
exercise  of  the  mind  in  thinking  and  feeling  and  how  far  it  is 
a  barren  action  of  the  organs  of  speech  upon  the  atmosphere. 
My  information  is  derived  principally  from  the  written 
statements  of  the  school  committees  of  the  respective  towns, 
—  gentlemen  who  are  certainly  exempt  from  all  temptation 
to  disparage  the  schools  they  superintend.  The  result  is, 
that  more  than  eleven-twelfths  of  all  the  children  in  the 
reading  classes  in  our  schools  do  not  understand  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  they  read ;  that  they  do  not  master  the  sense 


24  SILENT   READING 

of  the  reading  lesson,  and  that  the  ideas  and  feelings  intended 
by  the  author  to  be  conveyed  to,  and  excited  in,  the  reader's 
mind,  still  rest  in  the  author's  intention,  never  having  yet 
reached  the  place  of  their  destination.  And  by  this  is  not 
meant  that  the  scholars  do  not  obtain  such  a  full  compre- 
hension of  the  subject  of  the  reading  lessons,  in  its  various 
relations  and  bearings,  as  a  scientific  or  erudite  reader  would 
do,  but  that  they  do  not  acquire  a  reasonable  and  practical 
understanding  of  them.  It  would  hardly  seem  that  the 
combined  efforts  of  all  persons  engaged  could  have  accom- 
plished more  in  defeating  the  true  objects  of  reading." 

Not  very  different  in  this  respect  from  the  days  of 
Horace  Mann  are  the  present  results  of  the  teaching 
of  reading  according  to  the  conclusion  of  Judd,  reached 
after  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  present  status  of  read- 
ing in  our  schools : 

"  Many  a  pupil  leaves  school  equipped  with  the  mechanical 
ability  to  read  words,  but  utterly  unacquainted  with  the 
possibility  of  interpretation.  School  reading  has  been  a 
formal  ceremony  for  the  pupil.  He  has  formed  the  habit  of 
thinking  that  the  words  have  been  adequately  dealt  with 
when  they  have  been  sounded.  The  fault  is  with  the  school's 
selection  of  reading  matter  and  with  the  school's  emphasis 
on  mere  mechanical  perfection  in  oral  reading.  ...  The 
present  practice  of  continuing  drills  in  the  mechanics  of  read- 
ing through  the  elementary  school  undoubtedly  retards 
pupils  rather  than  helps  them." 

Thorndike  (31)  comes  to  a  similar  conclusion  after 
an  exhaustive  analysis  of  errors  made  by  children  con- 
cerning the  matter  they  had  just  read : 


INTRODUCTION  25 

"  In  school  practice  it  appears  likely  that  exercises  in  silent 
reading  to  find  the  answers  to  given  questions,  or  to  give  a 
summary  of  the  matter  read,  or  to  list  the  questions  which 
it  answers  should  in  large  measure  replace  oral  reading.  The 
vice  of  the  poor  reader  is  to  say  the  words  to  himself  without 
actively  making  judgments  concerning  what  they  reveal. 
Reading  aloud  or  listening  to  one  reading  aloud  may  leave 
this  vice  unaltered  or  even  encouraged.  Perhaps  it  is  in  their 
outside  reading  of  stories  and  in  their  study  of  geography, 
history,  and  the  like,  that  many  children  really  learn  to  read." 

Moreover,  the  habits  of  slow  mechanical  reading, 
resulting  from  a  grossly  misplaced  emphasis  and  from 
defective  methods  of  teaching  reading,  last  not  only 
during  the  pupil's  school  career,  but  tend  to  persist 
till  his  dying  day.  Undoubtedly  many  a  reader  need 
go  no  farther  than  his  own  case  to  find  a  concrete  illus- 
tration of  the  following  generalization  made  by  Huey : 

"Doubtless  many  of  us  dawdle  along  in  our  reading  at  a 
plodding  pace  which  was  set  and  hardened  in  the  days  of 
listless  poring  over  uninteresting  tasks  or  in  imitation  of  the 
slow  reading  aloud  which  was  so  usually  going  on  either  with 
ourselves  or  with  others  in  the  school." 

EXCLUSIVE  TEACHING  OF  ORAL  READING  —  AN 
ANACHRONISM 

In  view  of  the  above  findings,  the  question  might 
well  be  raised :  Why  then  does  the  school  devote  the 
entire  reading  period  in  practically  all  the  grades  to 
the  teaching  of  oral  exhibition,  as  though  it  were  the 
sole  instrument  of  value,  to  the  complete  exclusion  and 


26  SILENT   READING 

absolute  disregard  of  silent  reading?  In  other  words, 
why  does  the  school  devote  itself  almost  exclusively, 
so  far  as  the  reading  period  is  concerned,  to  the  setting 
up  of  habits  of  word-pronouncing  and  the  vocaliza- 
tion of  the  printed  page,  which  habits  are  very  seldom 
if  ever  used  outside  of  the  formal  reading  period  of  the 
school,  and  neglect  almost  entirely  the  formation  of  the 
habits  of  far  greater  value  —  habits  of  rapid,  effective, 
silent  reading,  the  type  that  is  quick  to  assimilate  the 
thought  from  the  printed  symbols,  the  kind  that  is 
called  into  function  every  day  of  the  pupil's  school 
career  and  during  practically  every  day  of  his  subse- 
quent life? 

The  answer  to  the  above  question  is  twofold.  First, 
the  majority  of  the  investigations  reported  above  are 
of  comparatively  recent  date.  This  is  especially  true 
of  the  mass  of  investigations  measuring  the  efficiency 
of  reading  by  means  of  the  standardized  tests.  The 
bulk  of  them  have  occurred  only  within  the  past  decade. 
The  practical  significance  of  the  findings  is  only  now  be- 
ginning to  filter  through  into  the  vast  army  of  practical 
school  men  and  women  —  superintendents,  principals, 
and  teachers.  Educational  practice  must  always  lag 
somewhat  behind  educational  theory,  as  well  as  behind 
the  findings  of  scientific  research.  When  the  results 
of  scientific  studies  become  disseminated  sufficiently 
broadcast  throughout  the  ranks  of  practical  school 
people,  the  schools,  especially  those  directed  by  pro- 
gressive educators,  will  not  fail  to  modify  their  present 


INTRODUCTION  27 

practice  and  to  incorporate  into  their  mode  of  procedure 
the  new  methods  and  the  relative  stress  which  spring 
directly  from  the  certain  findings  of  scientific  research. 

The  second  reason  for  the  almost  exclusive  teaching 
of  oral  reading  and  the  neglect  of  silent  reading  is  the 
fact  that,  as  yet,  no  systematic  methods  for  the  teach- 
ing of  silent  reading  have  been  worked  out.  There  are 
as  yet  no  types  of  training,  in  rapid  silent  reading, 
which  have  been  developed  and  adapted  to  the  actual 
working  conditions  of  the  classroom.  The  experiments 
to  train  in  effective  silent  reading  thus  far  have  been 
largely  concerned  with  one  or  two,  or  at  most  a  small 
group  of  subjects,  and  the  experimenters  have  relied  to 
a  large  extent  upon  the  technical  apparatus  of  the 
psychological  laboratories,  such  as  the  tachistoscope, 
to  produce  the  desired  results.  Needless  to  say,  the 
general  use  of  such  apparatus  by  the  schools,  at  the 
present  time  at  least,  is  both  impractical  and  impos- 
sible. Indeed,  the  bulk  of  the  instruments,  such  as  the 
tachistoscope,  the  fall  chronometer,  and  the  various 
kinds  of  perceptual  apparatus,  have  been  constructed 
for  the  use  of  but  a  single  subject,  and  extensive  modi- 
fications would  be  necessary  before  they  would  be  suit- 
able for  group  usage. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  paucity  or  rather  complete 
lack  of  classroom  methods  for  the  teaching  of  silent 
reading,  numerous  methods  and  systems  for  the  teach- 
ing of  the  mechanics  of  oral  reading  have  been  most 
carefully  worked  out.  •  Occupying  for  centuries  a  domi- 


28  SILENT   READING 

nant  place  in  the  elementary  curriculum,  it  has  received 
the  thought  and  study  of  many  minds.  It  is  but  nat- 
ural that  teachers  will  continue  to  use  the  present 
methods  of  teaching  reading  until  other  methods  have 
been  devised  which  not  only  shift  the  emphasis  to  that 
phase  of  the  teaching  of  reading  where  it  will  produce 
the  best  results,  but  which  are  suitable  for  classroom 
use  as  well. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  its  historical  genesis,  the 
teaching  of  reading  as  an  oral  subject  has  come  down 
into  the  present  curriculum  as  a  heritage  from  the  an- 
cient days  when  oratory,  speech,  and  vocal  instructions 
were  not  only  the  most  important  but  almost  the  only 
instruments  for  the  dissemination  of  thought  and 
knowledge.  Before  the  invention  of  printing,  manu- 
scripts, involving  as  they  did  so  much  and  such  tedious 
labor,  were  necessarily  extremely  few  in  comparison 
with  the  products  of  the  present  day  press,  and  could 
not  constitute  the  important  medium  of  instruction 
which  books  do  at  the  present  day.  While  print- 
ing has  revolutionized  the  conditions  for  the  spread 
of  ideas  and  the  general  means  of  education,  yet  the 
school  under  the  sway  of  custom  and  tradition  has 
preserved  almost  intact  the  curriculum  of  reading  of  the 
centuries  past,  with  its  sole  stress  upon  oral  exhibition, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  objective  conditions  of  life 
for  which  that  curriculum  was  constructed  now  no 
longer  exist.  The  subject  of  reading,  like  all  other 
branches  of  the  curriculum,  tends,  with  the  lapse  of 


INTRODUCTION  29 

time,  to  become  petrified  —  a  fossil  of  ancient  prac- 
tices —  unless  it  is  subjected  to  constant  revision, 
modification,  and  adaptation  to  meet  the  correspond- 
ing changes  in  the  objective  conditions  of  modern  life. 
The  need  of  a  readjustment,  of  a  substantial  shift  of 
emphasis  in  this  portion  of  the  school's  curriculum, 
to  meet  the  changed  external  conditions  of  the  modern 
world  is  both  obvious  and  urgently  imperative. 

SHIFT  EMPHASIS  FROM  ORAL  TO  SILENT  READING 

This  needed  readjustment  can  be  effected  by  shifting 
the  emphasis  from  oral  to  silent  reading  —  in  other 
words,  by  teaching  silent  reading.  This  is  the  conclu- 
sion reached  by  practically  every  investigator  in  this 
field.  As  a  result  of  their  investigations  of  the  compara- 
tive efficiency  of  the  oral  and  silent  reading  of  the  pupils 
in  the  elementary  schools,  in  the  high  school,  and  in 
the  college,  Pintner  and  Gilliland  draw  the  following 
significant  conclusion : 

"  Thus  it  would  appear  that  silent  reading  is  undoubtedly 
the  more  economical  besides  being  the  method  best  adapted 
to  the  ordinary  activities  of  life,  since  the  vast  majority  of 
our  reading  is  silent.  This  being  the  case,  we  are  forced  to 
raise  the  pedagogical  question,  and  ask  why  it  is  that  so  much 
more  attention  is  given  to  oral  reading  than  to  silent  reading 
in  our  schools?" 

Probably  no  one  has  brought  out  more  strongly  or 
convincingly  the  pressing  need  for  a  radical  shift  of 
emphasis  from  oral  to  silent  reading  than  has  Judd. 


30  SILENT   READING 

After  pointing  out  the  mass  of  evidence  from  the  photo- 
graphic records  of  eye-movements  and  from  the  applica- 
tion of  standardized  reading  tests,  which  show  the  un- 
mistakable superiority  of  silent  reading,  Judd  concludes  : 

"Enough  (evidence)  has  been  brought  together  to  make 
it  certain  that  in  the  middle  grades  there  is  a  change  in  rela- 
tion between  oral  language  and  reading  which  ought  to  be 
recognized  by  a  radical  change  in  methods  of  instruction. 
Oral  reading  should  give  way  to  silent  reading  and  phonic 
analysis  should  give  place  to  word  analysis.  Meanings  should 
be  emphasized  and  not  the  mechanical  pronunciation  of  words. 

"Many  schools  have  not  recognized  the  demand  for  a  new 
type  of  instruction  in  reading  from  the  fourth  grade  on  and 
as  a  result  have  seriously  injured  the  development  of  pupils. 
.  .  .  The  oral  methods  which  are  legitimate  in  the  lower 
grades  become  inappropriate  with  the  growth  in  fluency  and 
range  of  recognition.  ...  It  is  a  mistake  to  jeopardize 
the  child's  independent,  fluent,  silent  reading  in  the  fourth 
grade  by  insisting  during  this  period  on  the  usual  oral  exer- 
cises. .  .  .  The  conscientious  teacher  supplied  with  a  read- 
ing book  and  a  period  in  the  program  carries  on  the  well- 
known  reading  farce  in  the  vain  hope  that  the  effects  of  un- 
successful teaching  will  be  overcome  by  a  liberal  application 
of  the  same  methods  that  produced  the  difficulties. 

"Teachers  ought  to  recognize  with  clearness  the  fact  that 
in  the  upper  grades  silent  reading  is  the  really  useful  type  of 
reading.  They  ought  to  understand  that  pupils  outgrow 
oral  training  just  as  infants  outgrow  creeping  when  they 
learn  to  stand  up  and  walk." 

The  above  quotation  from  Judd  may  be  said  to 
represent  fairly  well  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  all  the 
investigators  and  careful  students  of  this  subject. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PROBLEM 

EVEN  after  the  need  for  the  teaching  of  effective 
silent  reading  has  come  to  be  generally  recognized  by 
teachers,  they  will  still  be  hampered  and  restrained  by 
the  lack  of  a  satisfactory  technique,  the  lack  of  suitable 
methods  for  the  teaching  of  rapid  silent  reading.  Up 
to  the  present  writing,  there  has  been  practically  no 
systematic  attempt  to  utilize  the  wealth  of  data  afforded 
by  the  experimental  investigations  and  the  laboratory 
researches  into  the  nature  and  mode  of  functioning  of 
the  various  constituent  processes  of  the  reading  com- 
plex, for  the  formulation  of  methods  of  training  in  ef- 
fective rapid  silent  reading  which  are  adapted  to  a 
whole  class  under  the  ordinary  conditions  of  the 
schoolroom.  This  appears  to  the  writer  to  be  the  out- 
standing problem,  of  urgent,  practical  importance, 
in  the  entire  field  of  the  psychology  and  pedagogy  of 
reading.  Unless  the  findings  of  the  psychological 
laboratory  and  of  the  experimental  investigations  can 
be  adapted  to  the  development  of  practical  methods 
of  classroom  procedure,  the  teaching  of  reading  will 
continue  to  be  in  the  future,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past, 

31 


32  SILENT   READING 

the  slow,  mechanical,  oral  type,  unbenefited  and  un- 
improved by  all  the  discoveries  of  scientific  research. 

To  construct,  for  the  teacher  in  the  classroom, 
types  of  training  in  effective  rapid  silent  reading, 
based  upon  the  findings  of  experimental  science,  con- 
stitutes the  problem  in  this  investigation.  Efficiency 
in  silent  reading  depends  upon  both  speed  and  com- 
prehension. While  means  have  been  taken  to  safe- 
guard the  comprehension,  the  chief  stress  has  been 
placed  upon  methods  of  increasing  the  rapidity  of  silent 
reading.  In  an  age  in  which  the  best  thought  is  com- 
mitted to  writing,  and  in  which  the  printed  symbol  has 
supplanted  the  spoken  word  as  the  chief  instrumental- 
ity for  the  dissemination  of  knowledge,  the  ability  to 
read  with  speed  and  yet  with  understanding  is  of  funda- 
mental importance. 

Since  the  literature  in  practically  every  field  is  now 
so  voluminous  that  none  but  the  fastest  can  hope  to 
cover  any  considerable  portion  of  its  extent,  it  may  be 
safe  to  say  that,  other  things  being  equal,  a  person's 
efficiency  in  his  profession  will  be  largely  proportional 
to  the  rapidity  with  which  he  can  gather  the  thought 
from  the  printed  page.  An  increase  of  speed  in  silent 
reading  will,  therefore,  not  only  effect  an  appreciable 
economy  of  time  and  effort  in  the  work  of  education, 
but  it  will  increase  the  efficiency  of  both  the  pupil  and 
the  adult.  It  will,  moreover,  satisfy  a  keenly  felt  human 
want.  For  there  are  probably  few  persons  who  have 
not,  at  some  time  or  other,  felt  themselves  aglow  with 


THE   PROBLEM  33 

the  insatiable  longing  to  penetrate  deeper  into  their 
chosen  field  of  labor,  to  make  themselves  masters  in  their 
field  by  assimilating  the  written  thought  and  knowledge 
of  the  masters  who  have  gone  before.  A  considerable 
increase  in  speed  of  reading  is  the  one  effective  instru- 
ment which  will  aid  them  in  the  realization  of  their 
desire. 

The  writer  feels  that  the  problem  is,  therefore,  not 
only  of  academic  interest,  but  is  one  of  real,  intense, 
practical  importance  and  functional  value.  If  success- 
ful in  the  construction  of  types  of  training  which  will 
actually  increase  the  speed  of  reading  to  a  considerable 
extent,  even  doubling  or  tripling  its  rate,  the  writer 
feels  that  the  study  will  have  served  as  a  useful  instru- 
ment in  bringing  the  results  of  over  half  a  century  of 
scientific  experimentation  to  bear  directly  upon  the 
actual  teaching  of  reading,  rendering  the  latter  im- 
mensely more  fruitful  and  effective  for  the  children  of 
America. 

The  investigation  seeks  first  to  determine  the  various 
factors  conditioning  the  development  of  speed  in  silent 
reading,  to  ascertain  the  comparative  influence  of  the 
different  factors  in  accelerating  the  reading  rate,  and 
to  combine  the  important  factors  into  a  formulation 
of  successful  types  of  training  in  silent  reading.  While 
the  investigation  seeks  mainly  to  furnish  a  practical 
answer  to  the  question,  implicit  in  the  minds  of 
thousands,  How  can  I  read  more  rapidly  and  yet 
with  understanding?  there  are  a  number  of  minor 


34  SILENT    READING 

problems  upon  which  it  is  expected  to  yield  additional 
data. 

Some  of  the  questions  upon  which  this  study  fur- 
nishes information  for  the  development  of  at  least 
tentative  answers  are  the  following :  How  does  an 
increase  in  the  speed  of  reading  affect  the  compre- 
hension? In  other  words,  Is  the  comprehension 
thereby  decreased,  unaffected,  or  increased?  Do  the 
individual  differences  in  rate  tend  to  decrease  or  to 
become  more  prominent  as  a  result  of  training  in  silent 
reading?  What  grades  show  the  greatest  susceptibil- 
ity to  improvement  in  rate  of  silent  reading  ?  At  what 
stages  in  the  progress  through  the  grades  should  speed 
of  silent  reading  receive  the  greatest  stress?  Does 
speed  of  reading  seem  to  be  conditioned  chiefly  by  a 
native  neurological  factor  whose  limits  of  possible 
variation  or  modification  are  rather  definitely  fixed  ? 
If  so,  may  the  rate  at  which  the  neurological  factor 
functions  in  the  eye  movements  or  the  visualization 
of  the  printed  page  be  determined  by  a  reaction-time 
test?  Does  the  quality  of  comprehension  tend  to 
persist  in  spite  of  changed  mental  attitudes,  assumed 
in  reading  for  different  purposes?  Do  the  present 
norms  for  rate  of  silent  reading  for  the  various  grades 
still  possess  validity  after  training  has  been  given  in 
rapid  silent  reading?  What  are  tentative  standards 
for  rate  for  grades  in  which  pupils  have  been  trained 
in  rapid  silent  reading? 

Data  will  also  be  presented  concerning  some  of  the 


THE   PROBLEM  35 

problems  previously  mentioned,  such  as  the  effect  of 
habits  of  increased  speed  upon  the  perceptual  span, 
upon  the  duration  and  number  of  fixation-pauses  per 
line,  and  upon  the  rate  of  the  interfixation  movements 
and  the  return  sweeps  —  data  which  will  be  of  interest 
chiefly  to  students  of  the  technical  psychology  of 
reading.  Some  suggestions  for  the  improvement  of  the 
Courtis  Silent  Reading  tests,  employed  in  this  investi- 
gation, have  also  resulted  from  the  study. 

The  succeeding  chapters  will  accordingly  treat  of 
(1)  the  factors  affecting  the  development  of  speed  in 
silent  reading,  (2)  their  formulation  into  types  of  train- 
ing, (3)  the  results  of  the  application  of  such  methods, 
(4)  the  interpretation  of  the  results,  (5)  the  effect 
upon  the  motor  behavior  of  the  eyes,  and  (6)  the  con- 
clusions. 


CHAPTER  III 

FACTORS  INFLUENCING  THE  RATE  OF  SILENT 
READING 

WHAT  are  the  factors  affecting  the  rate  of  silent 
reading?  With  the  single  exception  of  Quantz's  ex- 
periment (26)  during  1897  in  the  psychological  labora- 
tory at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  there  has  been  no 
other  investigation  of  an  experimental  character,  to 
the  writer's  knowledge,  which  has  made  the  answer 
to  the  above  query  the  primary  object  of  research. 
There  have  been,  however,  numerous  investigations 
which  have  ascertained  the  rate  of  silent  reading  of 
various  groups  of  pupils.  These  pupils  have  often 
displayed  different  levels  of  achievement,  as  well  as 
different  methods  of  procedure  and  different  charac- 
teristics in  their  reading,  so  that  deductions  have  oc- 
casionally been  drawn  as  to  the  factors  which  condi- 
tioned the  resultant  rates  of  achievement.  These  have 
been  made  chiefly  by  the  process  of  correlation,  rather 
than  by  the  rigorous  isolation  of  a  single  factor  and 
then,  under  controlled  conditions,  measuring  its  po- 
tency. The  latter  method,  while  most  fruitful  in  the 
physical  sciences,  is  not  possible  in  the  complex  type 
of  mental  activity  required  in  a  single  act  of  reading. 

36 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  37 

Correlations  have  been  found  sufficiently  high, 
however,  to  indicate  in  a  general  way  the  influence 
of  certain  factors  in  accelerating  or  in  retarding  the 
reading  rate.  The  factors  which  will  be  enumerated 
are  the  by-products,  as  it  were,  of  numerous  investiga- 
tions of  various  phases  of  reading,  conducted  both  in 
the  psychological  laboratory  and  in  the  schoolroom. 
It  is  thought  that  all  the  factors  which  investiga- 
tions have  indicated  to  be  of  appreciable  consequence 
in  conditioning  the  rate  have  been  included  in  the 
subsequent  enumeration.  The  present  study  thus  en- 
deavors to  utilize  all  the  data  which  previous  investi- 
gations have  afforded  on  this  particular  phase  of  read- 
ing. These  factors  have  been  incorporated  into  various 
types  of  training  to  increase  the  rate.  By  applying 
these  types  of  training  to  hundreds  of  school  children 
in  grades  three  to  eight  inclusive,  the  influence  of 
these  factors  in  accelerating  the  rate  will  thus  be 
experimentally  tested. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  factors  which  previous  in- 
vestigations and  the  general  literature  on  the  subject 
indicate  to  be  of  some  importance  in  conditioning  the 
rate  of  reading.  Each  factor  will  be  considered 
separately. 

1.  Practice  in  Rapid  Silent  Reading 

That  practice  in  a  certain  line  of  activity  is  an  im- 
portant factor  in  conditioning  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  the  resultant  product  is  a  fact  which  probably  no 


38  SILENT   READING 

one  will  deny.  This  principle  of  the  influence  of  prac- 
tice applies  to  the  reading  process  as  it  does  to  other 
mental  activities.  Huey's  (6)  own  case  is  an  in- 
teresting illustration  of  the  result  achieved  through  a 
determination  to  increase  his  reading  rate  by  per- 
sistent practice.  He  says : 

"I  have  considerably  increased  my  own  speed  in  reading 
by  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  my  rate  was  unnecessarily  slow, 
and  then  persistently  reading  as  fast  as  possible  with  well 
concentrated  attention,  taking  care  to  stop  short  of  fatigue 
until  the  new  pace  was  somewhat  established.  I  thus  reached 
a  speed  of  a  page  per  minute  for  such  books  as  Ellis'  'The 
Criminal'  of  the  Contemporary  Science  Series,  maintaining 
this  rate  for  a  half  hour  or  so  at  a  time,  and  with  very  good 
comprehension  of  what  was  read,  although  after  such  read- 
ing a  very  hasty  review  of  the  leading  points  was  the  most 
satisfactory  procedure.  My  earlier  speed  was  not  half  so 
great."  (6) 

Peters  (37)  conducted  an  experiment  in  1914-15  to 
determine  the  influence  of  speed  drills  on  silent  read- 
ing. The  investigation  was  conducted  in  grades  three 
to  six  inclusive.  The  speed  drills  lasted  "ordinarily 
from  five  to  ten  minutes."  The  regular  oral  reading 
work  was  not  discontinued,  these  drills  being  given  in 
addition,  without,  however,  giving  a  greater  total  period 
of  time  to  the  experimental  group  than  that  received 
by  the  control  group.  The  experiment  lasted  seven 
months.  Peters  reports  a  "gain  of  18.7  per  cent  in 
speed,  but  a  trifling  loss  in  quality  as  a  result  of  the 
speed  drills."  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  re- 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING 


39 


suits  in  speed  attained  by  the  "drill"  and  the  "no- 
drill"  groups. 

TABLE  I.    SPEED  IN  READING 


Nov.  6 

JAN.  20 

APR.  20 

JUNE  2 

Drill  Group    .... 
No-drill  Group    .     .     . 

167.7 
201.1 

266.5 
248.0 

219.8 
253.8 

261.4 
264.9 

The  experiment  of  Peters  bears  some  points  of  simi- 
larity to  that  part  of  the  present  investigation  which 
aims  at  determining  the  influence  of  Type  I  —  Train- 
ing in  Rapid  Silent  Reading.  (See  Chapter  IV.)  This 
investigation  differs  very  considerably  from  Peters' 
study,  however,  in  that  this  type  of  training  con- 
stitutes a  method  complete  in  itself,  to  which  was 
devoted  the  entire  reading  period.  The  ordinary 
procedure  in  the  reading  period  of  conducting  oral 
reading  recitations,  phonetic  exercises,  drills  in  word- 
pronouncing,  etc.,  was  entirely  replaced  by  training 
in  speed  and  comprehension  in  silent  reading.  In 
the  experiment  of  Peters  the  regular  oral  reading  work 
was  continued  as  usual,  with  the  addition  of  a  speed 
drill  lasting  "ordinarily  from  five  to  ten  minutes." 

The  length  of  time  assigned  for  the  drill  in  speed  in 
Peters'  experiment  is  thus  seen  to  be  quite  indefinite. 
Classes  securing  the  full  ten  minutes  for  this  drill  would 
thus  receive  twice  as  much  time  for  practice  in  rapid 
reading  as  the  classes  using  only  five  minutes.  Such 
a  considerable  variation  in  the  possible  amount  of  time 


40*  SILENT   READING 

to  be  used  in  speed  drills,  with  apparently  no  record 
kept  of  the  amount  each  class  actually  used  would  seem 
to  render  difficult  and  uncertain  any  comparison  be- 
tween the  gains  made  by  the  different  classes.  Further- 
more, the  continuance  of  the  regular  work  in  oral  read- 
ing, to  which  most  of  the  period  was  devoted,  along  with 
the  speed  drills  of  five  to  ten  minutes'  duration,  would 
seem  to  render  the  final  result  the  tangled  product  of  a 
rather  complicated  and  mixed  course  of  training. 

C.  T.  Gray  (19)  reports  the  results  of  training  a 
single  fifth  grade  pupil  in  rapid  silent  reading.  The 
practice  period  varied  from  15  to  20  minutes  a  day  and 
continued  for  twenty  days.  "Speed  was  the  aim  here, 
at  the  expense  of  comprehension,  if  necessary.  Never- 
theless comprehension  was  also  checked  up  by  oral 
reproduction.  .  .  .  The  material  for  the  training  was 
carefully  selected,  so  as  not  to  be  too  difficult  and  yet 
to  require  considerable  effort  on  the  part  of  the  reader." 
Concerning  the  results  of  the  practice,  as  determined 
by  the  same  test  which  was  taken  before  and  after  the 
training,  Gray  says :  "  In  every  test  there  is  a  decided 
improvement  in  speed.  In  only  two  of  the  tests  is 
there  any  decrease  in  comprehension,  and  in  each  case 
this  loss  is  on  the  most  difficult  test  of  the  series." 

Unlike  the  comparatively  small  increase  reported  by 
Peters  the  gain  here  varied  from  84  per  cent  to  217 
per  cent.  While  no  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  the 
performance  of  a  single  pupil,  the  large  gain  reported 
struck  the  writer  as  deserving  of  note.  It  raised  in  his 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  41 

mind  the  query,  Would  it  be  possible  to  secure  a  similar 
percentage  of  gain  when  dealing  with  a  much  larger 
group  of  subjects?  The  investigation  of  the  influence 
of  Type  I  —  Training  in  Rapid  Silent  Reading  —  repre- 
sents the  endeavor  to  secure  an  answer  to  that  question. 

Oberholtzer   (23)   conducted  an  investigation  with 
1800  pupils  in  grades  one  to  eight  in  the  Tulsa  public, 
schools   to  determine  the  rates  of  reading.     Among 
the   conclusions   he   draws   from   this   study   are   the 
following : 

"The  rate  of  reading  in  all  the  grades  is  relatively 
lower  than  it  should  be  if  the  habit  of  reading  had 
from  the  beginning  been  acquired  through  conscious 
effort  to  improve  the  rate." 

"One  room  showed  an  increase  of  50  per  cent  in  the 
rate  after  two  weeks'  practice  in  rapid  reading.  These 
tests  showed  that  oral  expression  and  the  power  to  grasp 
the  content  were  equally  improved." 

In  an  unpublished  Master's  Thesis  (33)  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  Miss  Bowden  thus  reports  the  re- 
sults of  practice  upon  the  reading  of  a  number  of  adults  : 
"The  figures  show  that  .  .  .  the  reading  rate  may 
be  markedly  increased  by  practice."  She  also  reports 
the  influence  of  a  ten-minute  exercise  in  rapid  reading 
upon  the  rate  of  a  seven-year  old  boy.  The  practice 
continued  for  40  days ;  the  child's  rate  was  increased 
from  12  words  per  minute  to  55  words  per  minute. 
Miss  Bowden  is  of  the  opinion  that  similar  exercises 
in  rapid  reading  would  prove  beneficial  in  increas- 


42  SILENT   READING 

ing  the  rate  of  elementary-school  children  whose 
motor  habits  are  not  definitely  set. 

That  practice  in  rapid  silent  reading  is  therefore  a 
factor  of  prime  importance  in  conditioning  the  rate, 
the  above-mentioned  investigations  abundantly  show. 
It  is  true  that  many  of  these  studies  dealt  with  but  a 
very  small  number  of  subjects,  while  in  others  the  se- 
curing of  data  on  this  particular  point  was  but  a 
secondary  consideration.  In  fact,  the  investigation 
conducted  by  Peters  seems  to  have  been  the  only  one 
involving  a  fairly  large  number  of  subjects,  which  had 
as  its  primary  aim  the  discovery  of  the  influence  of 
speed  drills  upon  the  rate  of  reading. 

These  studies  are,  however,  interesting  and  signifi- 
cant, at  least  in  the  writer's  judgment,  not  so  much  for 
the  bulk  or  weight  of  their  findings  taken  by  themselves 
as  for  the  corroborative  evidence  of  an  experimental 
character  which  they  lend  to  a  theory  which  has  in- 
trinsically very  strong  a  priori  grounds  of  credibility. 
For,  as  will  be  pointed  out  at  greater  length  in  the 
exposition  of  this  type  of  training  in  Chapter  IV,  prac- 
tice has  a  very  marked  influence  on  other  types  of  ac- 
tivity, and  there  appears  to  be  no  inherent  reason  why 
reading  should  prove  to  be  the  solitary  exception.  Of 
the  three  types  of  training  developed  in  the  present 
study,  and  of  any  other  embryonic  ones  touched  upon 
in  the  literature  on  this  subject,  this  method  is,  in  the 
writer's  judgment,  the  most  important  one,  and  the  one 
which  is  possessed  of  the  strongest  intrinsic  grounds  of 


THE    RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  43 

plausibility.  It  has  accordingly  been  made  the  basic 
principle  or  factor  upon  which  has  been  constructed 
a  distinct  type  of  teaching  method.  This  type  is 
called  Training  in  Rapid  Silent  Reading. 

2.    The  Decrease  of  Vocalization  in  Silent  Reading 

The  attention  of  students  who  have  endeavored  to 
analyze  the  reading  complex  into  its  constituent  pro- 
cesses has  often  been  attracted  by  the  concomitant 
movements  of  the  lips,  tongue,  inner  palate,  pharynx, 
vocal  cords,  and  the  general  mechanism  of  speech.  The 
reader  apparently  not  only  visualizes  or  perceives  the 
printed  words,  but  says  them  to  himself.  This  com- 
bination of  motor  and  auditory  elements  constitutes  the 
so-called  "inner  speech"  of  silent  reading.  A  consid- 
eration of  the  origin  of  this  habit,  of  the  psychological 
role  it  plays  in  reading,  and  of  the  possibilities  of  eradi- 
cating it,  is  reserved  for  a  subsequent  chapter.  The 
writer  will  present  here  merely  the  results  of  investi- 
gations which  indicate  that  the  habit  of  vocalization, 
involving  movements  of  the  lips,  tongue,  etc.,  is  a 
factor  influencing  the  rate  of  silent  reading. 

One  of  the  earliest  attempts  to  discover  the  influence 
of  lip  movement  and  of  the  general  motor  tendency  to 
vocalize  was  made  by  Quantz  (26)  in  1897.  Concern- 
ing the  results  of  his  study,  Quantz  concludes : 

"This  shows  that  the  motor  tendency  (as  manifested  by 
lip  movement)  in  any  degree  has  an  influence  detrimental 
to  rapidity  of  reading,  and  the  stronger  the  tendency  the 


44  SILENT   READING 

greater  is  the  hindrance ;  the  numbers  representing  the  lip 
movement  regularly  decrease  as  reading  rate  increases,  and 
vice  versa.  .  .  .  The  ten  slowest  readers  show  almost 
double  the  amount  of  lip  movement  that  the  ten  most  rapid 
do." 

Quantz  further  sought  to  ascertain  the  relationship 
between  lip  movement  and  the  rate  of  reading.  His 
conclusion  is:  "The  ratio  of  lip  movement  to  total 
amount  of  reading"  is  inverse.  The  "extent  of  read- 
ing works  directly  against  movement  of  lips"  as  evi- 
denced by  the  fact  that  "  not  one  of  those  whose  reading 
is  widest  is  a  lip  mover  to  any  extent  which  can  be  ob- 
served." 

C.  T.  Gray  (19)  reports  the  results  upon  the  rate  of 
silent  reading  of  training  given  to  decrease  vocalization. 
The  two  subjects  chosen  displayed  a  pronounced  habit 
of  vocalizing.  The  training  consisted  in  first  pointing 
out  the  disadvantages  of  the  possession  of  this  habit  in 
a  marked  degree.  They  were  then  requested  to  read 
in  their  natural  manner,  but  without  vocalizing.  Gray 
writes : 

"Comprehension  was  tested  either  with  oral  questions 
or  with  oral  reproductions.  That  the  practice  was  effective 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  no  vocalization  was  noted  when 
the  subjects  took  the  final  tests.  Their  instructor  reported 
that  at  first  there  was  considerable  distraction  caused  by 
the  attempts  to  eliminate  the  vocalization.  There  was, 
however,  a  gradual  decrease  in  this  distraction,  and  before 
the  end  of  the  practice  period  the  reactions  of  the  children 
seemed  perfectly  normal.  The  practice  continued  for  twenty 


THE    RATE   OF   SILENT    READING 


45 


days.     The  length  of  time  for  each  day  was  from  twenty  to 
thirty  minutes." 

A  summary  of  the  results  of  the  training  as  deter- 
mined by  having  the  two  subjects  take  the  same  test 
before  and  after  the  practice  period  is  presented  in 
Table  II. 


TABLE  II. 


RECORD  OP  Two  SUBJECTS  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  PRACTICE 
IN  THE  DECREASE  OF  VOCALIZATION 


READING  TO  ANSWER  QUESTIONS 

READING  TO  REPRODUCE  THE 
SUBSTANCE  OF  CONTENTS 

js 
1* 

Rate 

Comprehen- 
sion 

J§ 
I* 

Rate 

Comprehen- 
sion 

6th     Grade 
Subject 
4th     Grade 
Subject 

A 

D 

E 

Gain  177% 

Gain    60% 
Loss     13% 

Loss  75% 

Loss  11% 
Loss  11% 

B 
C 
D 

Gain  160% 
Gain    88% 
Gain    39% 

Loss  0.2% 
Loss  100% 
Gain  71% 

Table  II  is  to  be  read  thus:  On  selection  A,  the  sixth  grade  subject 
made  a  gain  of  177  %  in  rate,  but  lost  75  %  in  comprehension  as 
measured  by  the  answering  of  questions  on  the  matter  read.  In  read- 
ing selection  B  to  reproduce  the  substance  of  the  contents,  the  sixth 
grade  subject  gained  160  %  in  rate,  and  lost  0.2  %  hi  comprehension. 

Gray  thus  summarizes  the  "positive"  results  of  the 
above  experiment : 

1.  "Training  in  reading  without  vocalization  results  in  a 
marked  decrease  in  this  motor  accompaniment  of  reading. 

2.  "  Training  of  the  type  mentioned  above  results  in  an  in- 
crease in  rate.     In  considering  these  results  for  gain  in 
rate,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  practice  work  was 
done  at  the  normal  rate." 


46  SILENT   READING 

The  "  negative "  results  may  be  summarized  as 
follows : 

1.  "In  five  of  the  seven  tests  taken  by  the  two  subjects 
there  is  a  loss  in  comprehension;  in  one  of  the  tests  no 
change  is  shown  in  the  results  for  comprehension;  and  in 
one  test  there  is  a  gain." 

In  the  case  of  these  two  subjects  the  attempt  to 
decrease  vocalization  interfered  rather  considerably 
with  their  comprehension.  The  conscious  attempt  at 
inhibition  was  apparently  somewhat  disturbing,  draw- 
ing off  part  of  the  attention  from  the  assimilation  of 
the  content  to  the  manner  of  reading  it.  This  dis- 
turbing element  would  seem  to  be  no  more  than  should 
be  expected  during  the  initial  stages  of  the  breaking 
down  of  an  old  habit  and  the  substitution  of  a  new 
one.  The  experiment  lasted  such  a  short  period 
that  it  leaves  undetermined  the  effect  that  would  be 
produced  by  a  longer  period  of  practice,  when  the  de- 
crease in  vocalization  would  have  become  habitual  or 
automatic,  and  would  in  consequence  have  drawn  no 
conscious  attention  from  the  comprehension  of  the 
content.  Furthermore,  the  small  number  of  subjects 
in  this  experiment  —  there  were  but  two  —  renders  it 
unsafe  to  draw  any  conclusion,  save  one  of  a  most  tenta- 
tive character,  concerning  the  effect  this  training  would 
produce  upon  a  large  number  of  pupils. 

That  part  of  the  present  investigation  which  deals 
with  Type  II --Training  to  Decrease  Vocalization  — 
by  extending  this  training  to  a  much  larger  number  of 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  47 

pupils,  and  by  allotting  to  it  the  entire  reading  period 
of  thirty  minutes  daily  for  a  period  of  two  months, 
endeavors  to  throw  some  light  on  questions  left  unan- 
swered by  C.  T.  Gray's  simple,  but  suggestive  experi- 
ment. As  will  be  pointed  out  in  a  subsequent  chapter, 
the  method  worked  out  in  Type  II,  while  in  principle 
similar  to  Gray's,  differs  from  it  in  many  important 
respects.  It  introduces  a  number  of  new  details, 
devices  in  motivation,  etc.  Furthermore,  it  involves 
reading  not  at  the  ordinary  leisurely  rate,  as  in  Gray's 
experiment,  but  at  as  fast  a  rate  of  speed  as  is  con- 
sistent with  effective  comprehension. 

Miss  Abell  (34)  reports  the  results  of  an  early  investi- 
gation of  the  reading  rates  of  41  students  at  Wellesley. 
Concerning  the  relation  of  vocalization  to  rapidity  in 
silent  reading,  Miss  Abell  draws  the  following  conclusion  : 

"A  characteristic  correlate,  in  the  case  of  our  subjects, 
of  slow  reading,  is  the  actual  pronunciation  or  the  vivid 
articulatory  imagination  of  the  words  read.  This  device, 
which  may  assist  in  the  comprehension  of  a  strange  word  or 
of  an  obscure  meaning,  is  certainly  a  hindrance  when  it 
becomes  habitual.  The  discouragement  of  a  child's  tendency 
to  accompany  reading  by  articulation  is  an  evident  pedagogi- 
cal requirement." 

Dodge  (35)  reports  that  in  his  own  silent  reading,  at 
the  ordinary  rate,  the  vocalization  of  practically  every 
word  occurs.  In  his  most  rapid  reading  of  ordinary 
material,  merely  the  beginnings  of  words  are  vocalized, 
while  in  his  reading  of  very  familiar  matter,  at  top- 


48  SILENT   READING 

speed,  only  some  words  are  pronounced.  This  further 
confirms  the  conclusion  that  a  decrease  in  vocalization 
is  correlated  with  an  increase  in  speed. 

Huey  (6)  reports  a  number  of  exceptionally  fast 
readers.  Among  the  number  cited  is  the  case  of  a 
mathematician  who  "read  the  whole  of  a  standard 
novel  of  320  pages  in  two  and  one-fourth  hours."  Com- 
menting upon  the  nature  of  the  reading  process  at  such 
a  rate,  Huey  says  : 

"I  am  inclined  to  think  that  at  any  such  speed  the  mean- 
ings suggested  immediately  by  the  visual  forms  suffice  for 
all  but  the  more  important  parts,  and  that  these  meanings 
are  felt  sufficiently,  without  inner  utterance,  to  permit 
selection  of  what  is  more  important,  the  more  important 
places  themselves  having  a  fleeting  inner  utterance  to  vivify 
their  meaning.  .  .  .  The  inner  speech  in  such  cases  must  at 
any  rate  suffer  a  foreshortening  and  atrophy  of  articulatory 
details  which  reduce  it  to  little  more  than  a  slight  motor 
tallying  as  the  meanings  are  felt  or  dwelt  upon." 

The  results  of  the  investigations  above  cited  suffice 
to  show  that  vocalization  as  manifested  by  lip  move- 
ment, etc.,  in  silent  reading  is  undoubtedly  a  factor  of 
some  consequence  in  affecting  the  rate.  Its  effect, 
however,  is  to  retard  rather  than  to  accelerate.  Con- 
sequently, its  elimination  or  at  least  its  decrease  would 
seem  to  be  instrumental  in  increasing  the  rate.  An 
attempt  to  accomplish  this  result  has  been  made  by 
devising  Type  II --Training  to  Decrease  Vocaliza- 
tion. Though  the  lessening  of  inner  speech  is  the 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  49 

fundamental  factor  and  the  distinguishing  character- 
istic of  this  method,  there  are  also,  as  will  be  seen  later, 
other  factors  of  scarcely  less  importance  which  have 
been  incorporated  into  this  type  of  training. 

3.  Training  in  Perception 

Photographic  records  of  the  eye-movements  and 
pauses  during  reading  have  served  to  emphasize  the 
fact  that  most  of  the  total  reading  time  is  consumed 
by  the  pauses.  In  fact,  the  duration  of  the  fixations 
being  equal,  the  total  reading  time  will  then  bear  a 
direct  relation  to  the  number  of  fixations.  The  fewer 
the  fixations,  the  shorter  will  be  the  reading  time,  the 
greater  the  number  of  fixations  the  longer  the  reading 
time  required.  Consequently,  if  a  type  of  training  can 
be  devised  which  will  effect  a  decrease  in  the  number 
of  fixations,  the  reading  time  will  be  correspondingly 
decreased.  But  the  number  of  pauses  per  line  is,  gen- 
erally speaking,  conditioned  by  the  width  of  the  per- 
ceptual span.  Training,  therefore,  which  will  enlarge 
the  perceptual  span  will  result  in  a  reduction  of  the 
number  of  fixations  per  line,  with  a  corresponding  in- 
crease in  the  speed  of  reading. 

Photographic  records  of  the  behavior  of  the  eyes  dur- 
ing reading  have  focused  attention  upon  the  fixation 
pauses,  and  have  shown  them  to  be  the  crucial  points 
wherein  any  appreciable  economy  in  the  length  of  the 
reading  time  must  be  effected.  A  more  detailed  study 
of  the  nature  of  the  fixation  pause,  its  duration,  the 


50 


SILENT   READING 


extent  of  its  visual  reach,  and  the  psychic  processes 
occurring  therein,  is  reserved  for  a  subsequent  chapter. 
It  will  suffice  to  indicate  here  that  evidence  of  an  ex- 
perimental character  shows  that  training  in  perception 
is  a  factor  of  importance  in  accelerating  the  rate  in 
silent  reading. 

The  experimental  evidence  showing  the  influence  of 
this  factor  is  the  result  of  an  investigation  reported  by 
C.  T.  Gray  (19).  Two  fourth  grade  subjects,  a  boy 
and  a  girl,  were  given  practice  in  quick  perception  by 
means  of  short-exposure  exercises.  Various  kinds  of 
material  were  exposed  by  a  fall-tachistoscope  for  a 
fraction  of  a  second.  As  the  period  of  exposure  was 
so  brief  that  but  a  single  fixation  was  possible,  the 
material  would  have  to  be  grasped  in  a  single  span  of 
attention.  The  effort  to  perceive  all  the  material  ex- 
posed would  thus  tend  to  widen  the  span  of  attention, 
if  the  latter  were  at  all  susceptible  to  such  improve- 
ment. Tables  III  and  IV  give  a  summary  of  the  results 
achieved  by  each  pupil  as  reported  by  Gray. 

TABLE  III.     RECORD  OF  FOURTH  GRADE  BOY,  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 
SHORT-EXPOSURE  PRACTICE 


AVERAGE 
ON   2 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON   3 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON  4 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON    5 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON    6 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON   7 

WORDS 

Before 

Practice 

1.8 

2.5 

2.5 

3.0 

3.3 

Omitted 

After 

Practice 

2.0 

3.0 

4.0 

4.3 

3.3 

3.5 

THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING 


51 


TABLE  IV. 


RECORD  OF  FOURTH  GRADE  GIRL  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 
SHORT-EXPOSURE  PRACTICE 


AVERAGE 

ON    2 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON  3 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON   4 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON    5 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON   6 

WORDS 

AVERAGE 

ON    7 

WORDS 

Before 
Practice 

1.3 

1.0 

1.6 

1.5 

2.2 

2.0 

After 
Practice 

2.0 

3.0 

4.0 

3.9 

3.3 

3.5 

Table  III  shows  a  notable  improvement  in  every 
case,  except  in  the  span  for  the  six-word  series,  where 
the  averages  coincide.  Table  IV  is  even  more  striking. 
It  shows  a  widening  of  the  perceptual  span  in  every 
series.  While  a  fall-exposure  apparatus  was  used 
in  the  practice  exercises,  a  different  instrument  was 
employed  in  the  original  and  final  tests. 

"This,"  says  Gray,  "eliminates  to  a  large  degree  the  ele- 
ment of  adjustment  to  the  apparatus  and  makes  the  marked 
increase  in  the  perceptual  span  the  more  significant.  The 
importance  of  a  wide  span  of  attention  .  .  .  makes  this  re- 
sult all  the  more  valuable.  It  seems  that  positive  results 
can  be  obtained  as  early  as  the  fourth  year.  In  the  light 
of  these  facts  it  may  be  repeated  here  that  without  doubt 
the  type  of  training  which  is  given  in  primary  work  by  means 
of  the  flash  cards  is  a  very  important  element  in  the  early 
training  in  reading.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  foregoing 
results  indicate  the  desirability  of  a  better  grading  and  con- 
trol of  such  work.  Incidentally  the  result  makes  it  clear 
that  training  must  come  at  the  time  in  a  child's  development 
when  it  can  produce  results.  Late  training  is  often  defec- 
tive." 


52  SILENT   READING 

Gray's  conclusion  concerning  the  necessity  of  giving 
this  training  sufficiently  early  in  the  child's  develop- 
ment, i.e.  before  the  sixth  grade,  is  based  upon  results 
secured  from  giving  this  type  of  training  to  two  sixth 
grade  pupils.  These  results  indicated  that  "no  strik- 
ing change  was  made  in  the  span  of  attention." 
Whipple  (36)  secured  similar  results  with  adults. 

It  is  probable  that  a  distinction  has  to  be  made  here 
between  the  absolute  span  of  perception,  as  determined 
by  tachistoscopic  exposures,  and  the  relative  span  of 
perception  which  actually  functions  in  reading.  Though 
tachistoscopic  exposures  may  show  no  widening  of  the 
absolute  span  of  attention  as"  a  result  of  training  in 
perception,  there  may  nevertheless  result  the  function- 
ing of  a  wider  span  of  attention  in  reading  than  was  the 
case  before  the  training.  In  other  words,  there  results 
the  more  effective  use  of  the  perceptual  span  in  reading, 
where  it  practically  never  covers  the  extent  of  printed 
matter,  which  tachistoscopic  exposures  show  is  possible 
for  it. 

Consequently,  while  training  in  perception  may  not 
markedly  increase  the  absolute  span  of  attention  for 
pupils  in  the  sixth  grade  and  above,  nor  for  adults,  the 
conclusion  that  the  relative  span  of  attention  which 
functions  in  the  reading  of  such  persons  may  not  be 
enlarged  as  a  result  of  this  type  of  training  cannot  be 
drawn.  That  this  widening  of  the  perceptual  span  in 
reading  is  not  only  a  possible  result  of  such  training, 
but  that  it  is  the  result  which  actually  occurred  in  the 


THE    RATE    OF   SILENT    READING  53 

case  of  Gray's  sixth  grade  subject  B.  R.,  the  writer 
thinks  can  be  clearly  demonstrated  from  Gray's  own 
figures.  This  will  be  shown  in  Chapter  VI  —  Train- 
ing in  Perception.  It  is  sufficient  to«ndicate  here  that 
training  to  enlarge  the  perceptual  span  has  been  shown 
to  be  no  unimportant  factor  in  accelerating  the  rate 
of  silent  reading.  It  has  accordingly  been  made  the 
basic  principle  upon  which  has  been  constructed  the 
third  type  of  training. 

4.  The  Character  of  Subject  Matter 

Simple  material  will  naturally  be  read  more  rapidly 
than  difficult  material.  Under  this  head  comes  also 
familiarity  with  the  subject  matter.  Thus,  the  ordi- 
nary reader  would  probably  find  a  treatise  on  psychol- 
ogy rather  slow  reading,  while  a  psychologist  would 
read  and  assimilate  it  rapidly  because  of  his  greater 
familiarity  with  the  subject  matter  and  greater  ap- 
perceptional  capacity. 

Dearborn  found  that  by  assigning  to  a  mathemati- 
cian, a  teacher  in  a  secondary  school,  and  a  psychologist, 
subject  matter  unrelated  to  their  respective  lines  of 
study,  marked  difference  in  the  reading  rates  resulted. 
Dearborn  reports  that  a  reader  saved  one-third  of  the 
total  time  required  for  the  first  reading  upon  pe- 
rusing the  same  selection  a  second  time.  The  results 
secured  in  the  present  investigation  —  results  which 
will  be  presented  in  a  subsequent  chapter  —  prove 
conclusively  that,  other  things  being  equal,  familiarity 


54  SILENT   READING 

with  the  subject  matter  notably  increases  the  speed  of 
reading. 

5.  Habits  of  Eye-Movement 

Records  of  the  eye-movements  of  many  readers  as 
shown  in  the  monographs  of  Dearborn,  C.  T.  Gray, 
Schmidt,  Huey,  and  Judd,  indicate  that  as  a  general 
rule  rapid  efficient  reading  is  characterized  by  rather 
uniform,  rhythmical  movements  of  the  eyes  in  contrast 
with  the  irregular  movements  and  frequent  regressions 
of  the  stumbling,  halting  reader.  Dearborn  as  quoted 
by  W.  S.  Gray  (38),  says :  "It  is  in  the  writer's  belief 
clearly  indicated  by  the  above  experiments  that  one  of 
the  essentials  of  natural  and  rapid  reading  is  that  the 
reader's  eye  should  at  once  be  able  to  acquire  a  regular 
and  uniform  motor  habit  of  reaction  for  each  line." 

Huey,  in  agreement  with  the  above  observation  of 
Dearborn,  remarked  in  regard  to  the  eye-movements 
of  the  20  graduate  students  whom  he  tested:  "The 
readers  showed  a  rhythmic  tendency.  Each  would 
fall  into  a  reading  pace  that  seemed  most  natural  to 
him,  and  would  then  read  page  after  page  in  almost 
exactly  the  same  time.  Quite  usually  the  differences 
from  page  to  page  would  not  be  over  three  or  four 
seconds.  .  .  .  Habits  of  eye-movement  are  doubtless 
important  factors  in  setting  the  pace." 

It  is  doubtless  true,  however,  that  the  character  of 
the  eye-movements  is  affected  very  considerably  by 
other  factors,  such  as  the  size  of  the  visual  span,  the 


THE    RATE    OF   SILENT   READING  55 

simple  or  difficult  character  of  the  subject  matter,  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  read,  and  the  ability  to  grasp 
the  meaning  quickly.  Yet  over  and  above  all  these 
factors  it  is  probable  that  there  is  a  habit  of  eye-move- 
ment of  a  fairly  definite  kind,  which  functions  in  the 
ordinary  reading  of  the  individual,  and  which  tends 
to  persist  to  some  extent,  even  when  the  character  of 
the  subject  matter  and  other  factors  are  somewhat 
changed.  Of  two  individuals  possessing  equal  assimila- 
tive capacity,  reading  the  same  subject  matter  under 
similar  conditions,  the  habit  of  regular  rhythmical  eye- 
movements  would  tip  the  scales  in  favor  of  its  owner 
over  the  unfortunate  individual  who  has  never  rendered 
an  ocular  motor  reaction  of  this  type  habitual  in  his 
reading. 

Dean  Fordyce  (39)  in  a  paper  read  at  the  Convention 
of  the  National  Education  Association  in  1917  seems  to 
regard  this  as  the  chief  causal  factor  in  accounting  for 
the  differences  in  rate.  "The  difference  in  reading 
rate,"  he  says,  "is  largely  a  matter  of  the  rhythmical 
motor  habits  into  which  the  eye  is  trained  in  the  early 
attempts  to  read.  If  the  eye  falls  into  the  habit  of 
pausing  on  each  word,  the  rate  is  slow  and  plodding ; 
if  into  the  habit  of  taking  in  the  larger  units  of  phrases 
and  clauses,  the  rate  is  correspondingly  rapid  and  the 
interpretation  even  easier.  The  trained  eye  grasps 
the  words  of  a  phrase  or  sentence  in  a  single  unitary 
act ;  similarly  the  perceptive  power  grasps  the  ideas  in 
their  combined  form  in  the  thought." 


56  SILENT   READING 

Dean  Fordyce  further  relates  the  rather  striking 
acceleration  of  his  own  reading  rate  by  gradually  re- 
placing his  defective  ocular  motor  reactions  with  regular 
well-balanced  eye-movements.  He  says  : 

"The  writer  discovered  several  years  ago  that  his  reading 
rate  was  very  much  below  the  norm.  He  sought  for  months 
a  means  of  remedying  the  defect.  Being  convinced  that  his 
difficulty  was  largely  a  matter  of  the  defect  in  motor-eye 
habits,  he  set  about  the  ludicrous  task  of  learning  to  read 
as  if  he  were  a  first-grader.  The  first  reader  was  adopted  for 
the  practice.  A  series  of  exercises  consisting  first  of  a  column 
of  two-word  phrases  was  used  the  first  month.  After  his 
eye  had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  seizing  such  phrases  as  units, 
another  column  of  three-word  phrases  and  clauses  was 
adopted  for  practice.  Later  a  column  of  short  sentences 
was  used.  Through  ten  minutes  of  judicious  daily  practice 
on  these  exercises,  and  on  simple  easily  comprehended  prose, 
the  author  in  a  single  year  doubled  his  speed  in  reading,  and 
has  been  pleased  to  note  a  similar  achievement  among  his 
students  as  a  result  of  such  practice.  By  such  exercises  the 
eye  falls  into  new  motor  habits  of  a  regular  rhythmical  nature, 
enabling  the  student  to  read  in  large  rather  than  small  units. 
The  perceptual  span  increases  with  the  ocular  span." 

In  the  exercises  above  described,  however,  there  was 
training  not  only  in  rhythmical  eye-movements,  but 
also  training  to  increase  the  perceptual  span.  The 
widening  of  the  visual  span  would  naturally  cause  the 
eye-movements  to  cover  a  greater  extent  of  the  printed 
line,  thereby  necessitating  fewer  movements  per  line 
and  tending  to  inhibit  the  numerous  regressive  move- 
ments which  are  the  usual  concomitants  of  a  slow, 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  57 

halting  reading  pace.  Thus  the  exercises  with  the  col- 
umn of  two-word,  and  then  three-word,  phrases,  etc., 
would  seem  to  be  training  which  would  have  as  its 
immediate  specific  effect  the  enlarging  of  the  perceptual 
span  to  grasp  these  phrases  as  a  unit  in  a  single  fixation. 
That  would  be  training  solely  in  perception.  The 
work  with  the  first  reader  and  similar  easily  compre- 
hended prose,  however,  would  appear  to  be  largely 
training  in  the  formation  of  rapid,  regular,  and  rhythmi- 
cal eye-movements.  The  rapid  reading  of  such  simple 
familiar  material  which  can  be  grasped  instantly,  seems 
to  be  especially  conducive  to  the  setting  up  of  regular 
rhythmical  eye-movements.  These  can  gradually  be 
crystallized  into  a  habit  which  functions  in  almost  all 
the  individual's  reading  because  it  has  now  become  for 
him  the  natural  manner  of  reading. 

The  entire  increase  in  Fordyce's  speed  in  reading 
could  not  therefore  be  attributed  solely  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  habit  of  regular  rhythmical  eye-movements. 
Apparently  a  considerable  share  of  the  increase  must 
be  credited  to  an  enlargement  of  the  perceptual  span, 
or  to  a  more  effective  use  of  it  in  reading.  Some  of  it 
is  also  doubtless  due  to  the  setting  up  of  "higher  order" 
habits  of  eye-movements. 

The  case  illustrates  how  closely  and  almost  in- 
separately  are  intertwined  these  two  processes  of  the 
reading  complex  —  eye-movements  and  perceptual 
span.  Thus  the  functioning  of  a  wide  perceptual  span 
in  reading  insures  fewer  movements  per  line,  thereby 


58  SILENT   READING 

affording  an  extent  of  area  sufficient  to  permit  the  eye 
to  fall  into  a  certain  regular  sweep,  or  rhythm  of  move- 
ment, which  is  practically  impossible  where  the  eye  must 
pause  once  or  several  times  on  practically  every  single 
word.  In  the  case  of  the  training  described  by  Fordyce, 
the  functioning  of  the  wide  perceptual  span  would 
appear  to  be  largely  the  causal  factor  and  the  regular 
rhythmical  motor  reactions  the  resultant.  There  is 
such  an  intimate  interrelation,  however,  that  they 
probably  interact  upon  one  another.  It  is  very  prob- 
able —  and  the  experiments  of  Fordyce,  Huey,  and 
others  lend  great  weight  to  the  assumption  —  that 
the  training  in  the  regular  rhythmical  movements  of 
the  eyes  across  the  printed  line  tends  to  enlarge  the 
perceptual  span,  or  at  least  to  utilize  it  more  effectively 
by  preventing  less  overlapping  of  the  perceptual  spans 
in  reading.  As  Fordyce  expresses  it  "the  perceptual 
span  increases  with  the  ocular  span." 

This  regular  rhythmical  character  of  the  eye-move- 
ments is  pointed  out  as  a  general  characteristic  of 
rapid,  efficient  reading.  It  is  not  always  present, 
however,  in  such  reading.  As  Dearborn  observes, 
"rapidity  of  reading  is  not  necessarily  correlated  with 
regularity  of  movement,"  there  being  some  fairly  rapid 
readers  who  do  not  seem  to  have  acquired  this  habit  of 
eye-movement.  They  would  seem  to  be  fairly  rapid, 
however,  not  because  of  the  absence  of  this  habit  but 
rather  in  spite  of  it.  An  examination  of  the  photo- 
graphic records  of  the  eye-movements  published  by 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  59 

C.  T.  Gray,  Dearborn,  Huey,  and  Judd,  and  of  those 
taken  in  the  present  investigation,  shows  clearly  that 
one  of  the  important  characteristics  distinguishing  the 
rapid  efficient  reader  from  the  slow  plodding  or  stum- 
bling one  is  the  presence  of  a  certain  regular  rhythmical 
character  of  the  eye-movements.  This  rhythm  is 
shown  on  the  photographic  records  by  a  fair  uniformity 
in  the  number  of  pauses,  which  are  usually  an  appre- 
ciable distance  apart,  and  by  a  somewhat  "uniform 
method  of  time  distribution"  in  the  pauses.  The  hy- 
pothesis advanced  by  Dearborn  (17)  in  explanation 
of  this  regular  rhythmical  character  of  the  eye-move- 
ments in  fast  reading  is  that  "the  rapid  reader  dis- 
tributes his  attention  more  readily  at  the  initial  fixa- 
tion of  the  line,  and  is  enabled  on  this  account  to  fall 
more  readily  into  a  uniform  habit  of  movement." 
Whatever  explanation  of  the  fact  is  finally  accepted, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  bulk  of  existing  experi- 
mental evidence  points  to  the  habit  of  regular  rhythmi- 
cal eye-movements  as  no  insignificant  factor  in  affecting 
the  rate  in  silent  reading.  W.  S.  Gray  (20)  thus  aptly 
epitomizes  the  evidence  on  this  point :  "  Regular 
rhythmical  movements  of  the  eyes  are  prerequisite  to 
rapid  silent  reading." 

6.  Purpose  for  Which  the  Subject  Matter  Is  Read 

The  rate  of  reading  is  conditioned  very  largely  by  the 
purpose  or  object  for  which  one  reads.  Reading  simply 
to  "get  the  gist"  of  the  story  or  the  selection  induces 


60  SILENT    READING 

a  mental  attitude  radically  different  from  the  attitude 
assumed  when  one  reads  for  the  purpose  of  answering 
detailed  questions  on  the  matter.  The  whole  mental 
"set,"  the  entire  mode  of  attack,  the  degree  of  con- 
centration, the  amount  of  reflective  thought  and  logical 
association,  all  of  which  influence  the  rate,  will  depend 
largely  upon  the  end  for  which  the  reading  is  done. 

Whipple  and  Curtis  (40),  in  their  investigation  of 
skimming,  found  that  a  considerable  "slowing  down" 
resulted  when  the  subjects  knew  that  they  would  be 
required  to  reproduce.  Besides  ascertaining  the  dif- 
ferences in  rate  for  both  oral  and  silent  reading  when 
the  reading  was  done  for  different  purposes,  C.  T.  Gray 
(19)  took  photographs  of  the  eye-movements  for  the 
several  different  resultant  types  of  reading.  In  the 
first  type,  the  reading  was  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  "an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  material. 
Three  other  types  of  records  were  taken.  One  of  these 
was  of  reading  which  was  followed  by  the  answering 
of  questions  on  prose ;  another  was  a  passage  of  poetry, 
with  the  answering  of  questions ;  and  a  third  was  the 
reading  of  prose  for  reproduction.  .  .  .  These  results 
(summarized  below)  indicate  clearly  that  the  reader 
does  differentiate  between  different  types  of  reading  and 
evidently  approaches  different  reading  problems  with 
a  different  mental  'set.'  The  results  here  reported 
are  typical  of  all  the  subjects.  It  is  also  interesting  to 
know  that  the  length  of  the  pauses  does  not  vary  in  any 
large  degree,  while  the  number  of  pauses  varies  greatly." 


THE   RATE   OF   STLENT   READING 


61 


TABLE  V.  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORD  OF  ONE  SUBJECT  SHOWING 
VARIATIONS  ACCORDING  TO  PURPOSE  FOR  WHICH  THE  MATTER 
WAS  READ. 


No.  OF  PAUSES  PER  LINE 

AVERAGE  LENGTH  OF  PAUSES 

Prose 
(Simply 
to  Under- 
stand) 

Prose 
(Answer- 
ing Ques- 
tions) 

Poetry 
(Answer- 
ing Ques- 
tions) 

Prose 
(Repro- 
duction) 

Prose 
(Simply 
to  Un- 
derstand) 

Prose 
(Answer- 
ing Ques- 
tions) 

Poetry 
(Answer- 
ing Ques- 
tions) 

Prose 
(Repro- 
duction) 

Average 

8.1 

9.6 

11.0 

8.7 

13.3 

13.9 

14.0 

14.6 

Table  V  is  to  be  read  thus :  The  average  number  of  fixation-pauses 
per  line  in  reading  prose  (simply  to  understand)  is  8.1,  in  reading  prose 
(to  answer  questions),  9.6,  etc.  The  average  length  of  the  fixation- 
pause  in  reading  prose  (simply  to  understand)  is  13.3  fiftieths  of  a 
second,  etc. 

TABLE  VI.    VARIATION    IN    NUMBER    OF    REGRESSIVE    MOVEMENTS 
ACCORDING  TO  PURPOSE  FOR  WHICH  THE  MATTER  WAS  READ 


PROSE 

PROBE 

POETRY 

POETRY 

(Simply  to 

(Answering 

(Answering 

(Reproduc- 

Understand) 

Questions) 

Questions) 

tion) 

Average  per  line     .     . 

1.8 

2.4 

3.3 

1.8 

Table  VI  is  to  be  read  thus:  The  average  number  of  regressive 
movements  per  line  in  reading  prose  (simply  to  understand)  is  1.8,  in 
reading  prose  (to  answer  questions)  it  is  2.4,  etc. 

The  figures  in  the  above  table  tell  the  inside  story  of 
the  differences  in  rate  resulting  from  the  different  ends 
for  which  the  passage  was  read.  They  show  that  the 
physiological  processes  are  perceptibly  different  in  each 
type  of  reading.  There  is  a  variation  in  the  number  of 
fixation-pauses,  in  the  average  duration  of  the  pauses, 
as  well  as  in  the  number  of  regressive  movements. 


62  SILENT   READING 

These  are  the  physiological  correlates  which  reflect 
the  differences  in  the  conscious  functioning  in  the 
changed  mental  "sets"  or  attitudes. 

Besides  the  various  aims  in  reading  which  have  al- 
ready been  mentioned,  there  are  numerous  others 
which  shade  off  gradually  from  one  another.  The 
following  are  illustrations  of  purposes  for  which  a  selec- 
tion may  be  read,  each  of  which  would  affect  the  reading 
rate  in  an  appreciably  different  manner  : 

1.  Simply  to  understand  a  passage,  to  "get  the  gist" 
of  it. 

2.  To  find  a  few  specific  facts. 

3.  To  determine  the  logical  consistency  of  a  line  of 
argumentation. 

4.  To  appreciate  the  author's  diction  and  general 
rhetorical  constructions. 

5.  To  criticize  the  thought  or  language  of  the  selec- 
tion. 

6.  To  remember  so  as  to  retell  to  others. 

7.  To  be  able  to  follow  directions  of  procedure. 

8.  To  select  only  the  main  points. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  numerous  purposes  for 
which  one  actually  reads  at  various  times.  They  could 
be  drawn  out  at  greater  length.  This  list,  however, 
will  suffice  to  illustrate  the  different  attitudes  assumed 
in  reading,  with  consequent  differences  in  both  rate  and 
quality  of  comprehension.  That  reading  in  the  grades 
for  one  or  two  simple  purposes  does  not  develop  the 
ability  to  read  effectively  for  other  ends  is  evident  from 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   BEADING  63 

the  results  reported  in  1917  by  W.  S.  Gray  (41)  in  the 
Survey  of  the  St.  Louis  Schools  : 

"The  facts  presented  above  point  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  various  phases  of  silent  reading  ability  do  not  always 
develop  in  the  same  proportion.  Each  phase  needs  special 
attention,  and  the  teacher  must  plan  instruction  so  that 
pupils  receive  effective  training  in  all  phases  of  silent  reading 
ability.  This  includes  not  only  ability  to  reproduce  and 
ability  to  answer  questions,  but  in  addition,  ability  to  select 
pivotal  ideas,  ability  to  organize,  ability  to  determine  the 
relative  importance  of  facts,  ability  to  associate  new  ideas 
with  one's  store  of  knowledge,  etc.  To  the  extent  that  a 
teacher  gives  specialized  training  along  one  or  two  of  these 
lines,  just  to  that  extent  will  her  pupils  be  more  likely  to  fail 
in  a  situation  which  calls  for  silent  reading  ability  of  a  broad 
character." 

The  character  of  the  purpose  for  which  the  reading 
is  done  must  accordingly  be  ranked  among  the  factors 
of  primary  importance  in  conditioning  not  only  the 
quality  of  comprehension,  but  also  the  rate  of  reading. 

7.   Concentration  of  Attention 

Much  of  the  time  consumed  in  apparent  reading  is, 
in  reality,  lost  through  unconscious  wanderings  of  the 
attention  and  fruitless  daydreaming.  The  eyes  often 
remain  fixed  upon  the  page  while  the  mind  is  visiting 
distant  climes  and  is  busy  "  building  castles  in  Spain." 
How  much  of  the  time  seemingly  spent  in  the  reading  of 
a  book  is  actually  frittered  away  in  listless  poring  and 
idle  woolgathering,  especially  if  the  subject  matter  is 


64  -       SILENT   READING 

rather  heavy  and  somewhat  uninteresting,  is  difficult 
to  determine ;  but  that  it  is  considerable,  the  experience 
of  most  readers  leaves  no  room  for  doubt.  The  intro- 
spection of  a  number  of  graduate  students  in  education 
and  psychology  and  two  university  professors,  compos- 
ing a  seminar  group  at  which  this  study  was  first  dis- 
cussed, strongly  confirmed  the  writer's  own  conviction 
that  this  was  one  of  the  strategic  places  in  the  reading 
process  wherein  could  be  effected  a  very  considerable 
improvement  in  both  rate  of  reading  and  quality  of 
comprehension.  If  this  tendency  of  the  mind  to  wan- 
der exists  even  in  the  case  of  adults,  it  must  be  much 
stronger  in  the  case  of  children  whose  imaginations  are 
usually  very  strong  and  active,  but  whose  powers  of 
concentration  are  much  less  developed. 

Quantz's  study,  showing  that  the  rapid  readers  not 
only  averaged  approximately  37  per  cent  superiority 
in  the  quality  of  their  work,  but  also  introduced  less 
extraneous  matter  in  their  reproduction,  offers  corrobo^ 
rative  experimental  evidence  of  the  above  conclusion. 
Concerning  the  rapid  type  of  reader,  Quantz  (26)  says  : 
"He  introduces  only  two-thirds  as  many  thoughts  not 
found  in  the  original  selection."  This  fact  doubtless 
finds  its  explanation  in  the  greater  concentration  of  at- 
tention necessitated  by  rapid  reading,  and  the  conse- 
quent avoidance  of  daydreaming  and  woolgathering 
which  is  undoubtedly  the  prolific  source  of  the  ex- 
traneous material  found  in  the  reproduction  of  a 
selection. 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  65 

Concentration  of  attention  may  be  promoted  by 
various  means.  Chief  among  these  is  the  judicious 
selection  of  interesting  material  which  makes  a  strong 
appeal  to  the  mind  of  the  child.  The  matter  must 
grip  the  pupil's  attention,  especially  in  the  lower 
grades,  instead  of  requiring  his  volatile,  fluctuating 
attention  to  try  to  grip  it.  Much  of  the  slow  listless 
reading  observable  in  many  schools  is  largely  traceable 
to  the  unsuitable  character  of  the  subject  matter, 
which  is  not  only  not  closely  related  to  the  child's 
immediate  interests,  but  is  also  not  infrequently  be- 
yond the  pale  of  his  actual  experience.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  the  concepts  and  imagery  are  lacking 
in  vitality ;  the  reading  is  verbal  and  hopelessly  mechan- 
ical -  -  "a  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal." 

Besides  the  selection  of  subject  matter  that  touches 
off  the  springs  of  the  child's  immediate  interests,  there 
are  other  devices  chiefly  in  the  line  of  motivation  which 
assist  in  overcoming  die  Wanderlust  of  the  youthful 
imagination  and  enlist  the  prompt  and  vigorous  con- 
centration of  the  mind.  The  pressure  of  a  time  control, 
the  individual  graph,  and  the  class  chart,  which  will 
be  described  later,  are  effective  in  accelerating  the 
reading  rate  chiefly  through  their  immediate  effect  in 
enlisting  the  strong  concentration  of  the  attention. 
The  continued  concentration  of  the  youthful  reader  is 
scarcely  susceptible  to  direct  coercion ;  it  must  be  ef- 
fected largely  by  indirect  means,  such  as  those  above 
described. 


66  SILENT   READING 

The  significance  of  strong  concentration  of  attention 
in  increasing  the  speed  of  silent  reading  seems  to  have 
been  too  little  recognized  in  the  past.  Some  of  the 
means  utilized  in  the  present  investigation  owe  their 
incorporation  into  the  types  of  training  mainly  to 
their  immediate  influence  in  enlisting  the  active  at- 
tention of  the  reader.  For  even  with  the  other  factors 
present,  and  a  fair  degree  of  concentration  lacking,  the 
reading  will  be  necessarily  inferior  in  both  quality  and 
rate.  In  the  present  study,  then,  this  factor  is  strongly 
stressed. 

8.  Ability  to  Grasp  the  Meaning  of  Contents 

Since  reading  is  in  the  last  analysis  a  mental  process, 
namely,  the  assimilation  of  the  thought  from  the 
printed  page,  it  is  clear  that  the  perception  of  the 
printed  symbols-  is  affected  to  some  degree  by  the  speed 
with  which  those  symbols  can  be  understood.  Con- 
sequently in  the  reading  of  heavy  difficult  material, 
the  part  of  the  reading  process  which  demands  the 
bulk  of  the  time  and  effort  is  probably  not  the  op- 
eration of  "getting  the  material  to  the  brain,  but  of 
assimilating  it  after  it  is  there."  The  necessity  of 
making  the  proper  logical  associations,  of  examining 
the  validity  of  the  thought  in  the  light  of  the  principles 
already  acquired,  involves  reasoning  and  studying  of 
rather  a  high  character.  Such  a  process,  which  would 
seem  to  be  more  appropriately  termed  "studying"  than 
simple  "reading,"  naturally  demands  additional  time. 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  67 

But  in  the  case  of  reading  of  the  ordinary  type  of 
easily  comprehended  material,  rather  than  in  the 
"studying"  process  above  described,  the  assimilation 
of  the  matter  seems  to  occur  as  soon  as  the  printed 
symbols  are  perceived.  There  appears  to  be  no  ap- 
preciable retardation  of  the  rate  due  to  the  demands  of 
comprehension.  The  reverse  of  this  process  would 
seem  to  be  true  at  least  in  the  majority  of  cases.  The 
rate  of  comprehension  is  slowed  up,  waiting  upon  the 
tardier  process  of  visualization,  just  as  the  latter  is 
itself  impeded  in  the  case  of  oral  reading  by  the  more 
cumbersome  process  of  vocalization.  The  introspec- 
tion of  many  workers  in  this  field,  such  as  Huey,  For- 
dyce,  and  of  a  number  of  persons  interested  in  the 
present  study,  showed  that  their  rate  of  reading  was 
slow,  not  because  they  could  not  assimilate  the  matter 
rapidly,  but  because  their  perception  of  it  was  proceed- 
ing at  a  slow  plodding  pace. 

Their  subsequent  determination  to  increase  their 
reading  rate  resulted  in  quicker  perception  without 
impairment  of  the  comprehension.  These  instances, 
which  are  typical  of  hundreds  of  similar  cases,  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  reading  rate  at  least  in  regard 
to  the  ordinary  type  of  material  is  conditioned  by 
rate  of  perception  as  well  as  by  rate  of  assimila- 
tion. Most  readers,  in  other  words,  proceed  at  a  pace 
that  is  well  within  the  limits  of  their  possible  rate  of 
assimilation,  which  is  seldom  given  the  opportunity  of 
functioning  at  as  rapid  a  rate  as  is  really  possible  for  it. 


68  SILENT   READING 

Ruediger  (42),  however,  apparently  considers  the 
assimilative  factor  the  determining  or  "essential"  one. 
As  a  result  of  some  experimentation  he  concludes : 
"After  having  eliminated  the  physiological  qualities 
pertaining  to  the  mechanism  of  vision  we  saw  that 
neither  visual  acuity,  retinal  sensitivity,  nor  the  hori- 
zontal extent  of  acute  vision  had  any  significant  corre- 
lation with  reading  rate.  The  essential  factors  that 
determine  reading  must  be  looked  upon  as  central 
rather  than  peripheral." 

This  conclusion  is  undoubtedly  true  in  regard  to  the 
rate  at  which  difficult  material  can  be  intelligently  read, 
and  possibly  it  is  true  in  regard  to  the  upper  limit  of 
speed  at  which  more  easily  comprehended  material  can 
be  perused.  In  other  words  an  individual's  speed  of 
reading  can  never  actually  exceed  the  rate  at  which  it 
is  assimilated.  Otherwise  it  would  be  simple  visualiza- 
tion, not  reading  in  the  intelligent  sense.  But  are  there 
many  individuals  who  have  attained  a  rate  of  reading 
which  is  the  upper  limit  at  which  the  process  of  assimila- 
tion can  occur?  The  bulk  of  available  evidence  de- 
mands a  strong  negative  answer.  On  the  contrary  it  is 
probable  that  there  are  extremely  few  who  have  reached 
the  upper  limit  in  their  rate  of  reading,  i.e.  the  highest 
rate  of  reading  at  which  the  matter  can  be  compre- 
hended. There  has  been  so  much  dead-level  plodding, 
and  so  little  recognition  of  the  possibility  of  increasing 
the  rate,  and  so  few  systematic  attempts  to  do  so,  that 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  rate  at  which  most  individuals 


THE    RATE    OF   SILENT   READING  69 

read  can  be  considerably  increased  by  the  proper  type 
of  training  without  decreasing  the  comprehension  of 
the  matter  read.  The  results  of  previous  studies  as 
well  as  those  to  be  presented  in  the  present  investiga- 
tion, showing  marked  improvement  in  rate  of  reading 
with  no  impairment  of  comprehension,  constitute  the 
basis  for  the  above  statement. 

While  admitting  that  the  correlation  that  has  been 
found  to  exist  between  the  number  of  pauses  and  the 
reading  rate  does  not  apparently  square  with  his  con- 
clusion as  to  the  determining  r61e  played  by  the  assimi- 
lative factor,  Ruediger  maintains  that  the  number  of 
printed  symbols  perceived  during  a  fixation  may  be 
attributed  to  the  central  factor  of  comprehension  just 
as  well  as  to  effective  perception.  But  the  fact  that 
simple  exercises,  such  as  those  which  Dean  Fordyce 
describes  with  a  first  grade  reader  and  with  columns 
of  two-word  and  three-word  phrases,  and  such  as 
have  been  worked  out  in  the  present  study,  have 
notably  increased  the  speed,  not  infrequently  dou- 
bling it,  proves  conclusively  that  there  are  many  factors 
besides  the  ability  to  assimilate  which  condition  the 
rate  of  reading. 

Such  simple  exercises  cannot  presumably  have 
doubled  the  ability  to  comprehend,  but  they  have 
increased  the  size  of  the  visual  span  functioning  in 
reading  and  have  improved  the  character  of  the 
habits  of  eye-movements  and  other  peripheral  fac- 
tors, thus  producing  a  marked  increase  in  rate  of 


70  SILENT   READING 

reading.  This  conclusion  is  further  corroborated  by 
the  results  of  Quantz's  investigation  of  the  relation  of 
visual  perception  to  rate  of  reading.  After  pointing 
out  the  marked  correlation  existing  between  these, 
Quantz  draws  the  following  conclusion :  "  This  shows 
that  mere  quickness  of  perception  with  its  large  physi- 
ological element  is  an  important  factor  in  deciding  one's 
rate  of  reading."  Consequently,  while  the  ability  to 
assimilate  is  not  unimportant,  there  are  other  factors, 
peripheral  in  character,  whose  influence  in  condition- 
ing the  rate  of  reading  is  of  unquestionable  significance. 

9.   Recognition  of  the  Value  of  the  Habit  of  Rapid  Silent 

Reading 

Probably  the  chief  reason  why  comparatively  few 
readers  have  acquired  the  habit  of  rapid  silent  reading 
is  because  of  the  general  failure  to  recognize  the  possi- 
bility of  greatly  increasing  one's  rate,  and  consciously 
to  advert  to  the  value  of  such  a  habit.  The  discovery  of 
the  possibility  of  appreciably  accelerating  the  rate  is 
the  result  of  investigations  of  comparatively  recent 
date.  This  knowledge  is  only  beginning  to  filter 
through  into  educational  practice  and  to  reach  the 
popular  mind.  The  recognition  of  the  possibility  of 
establishing  immeasurably  more  effective  and  economi- 
cal habits  of  rapid  silent  reading,  and  the  appreciation 
of  their  value,  are  the  first  and  necessary  steps  in  their 
acquisition.  Once  these  facts  have  been  clearly  per- 
ceived, the  effort  necessary  to  substitute  "  higher 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  71 

order"  habits  of  reading  for  slow  dawdling  ones  will  be 
readily  forthcoming. 

Accordingly,  in  the  present  investigation  considerable 
care  was  taken  to  point  out,  not  only  to  the  teacher  the 
possibility  and  the  value  of  establishing  such  habits, 
but  also  to  get  this  lodged  clearly  in  he  minds  of  the 
pupils.  Unless  they  perceive  the  value  of  such  habits, 
and  are  made  to  feel  the  need  of  acquiring  them,  the 
work  is  apt  to  be  mechanical  and  lacking  that  earnest- 
ness which  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  effective  habit  forma- 
tion, and,  in  fact,  of  all  successful  work.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  value  of  such  habits  is  perceived  and  the 
need  felt,  the  successful  outcome  is  already  half  as- 
sured. For  from  such  an  attitude  there  springs  con- 
centration of  mind,  enthusiasm,  and  sustained  interest. 
Consequently  this  must  be  considered  no  unimportant 
factor  in  the  acquirement  of  habits  of  rapid  silent 
reading. 

10.    The  Will  to  Read  Rapidly 

Closely  related  to  the  preceding  factor,  and  growing 
logically  out  of  it,  is  the  will  or  determination  to  read 
rapidly.  The  writer  believes  it  important  enough,  how- 
ever, to  deserve  separate  enumeration.  The  general 
literature  on  the  subject  of  reading  records  several  in- 
stances of  persons  suddenly  awakening  to  the  realiza- 
tion that  their  rate  was  unnecessarily  slow.  Accord- 
ingly they  resolved  rather  simply  and  naturally  to 
bring  it  up  to  a  higher  level.  Marked  success  was 


72  SILENT   READING 

achieved.  Thus  Huey  (6)  owed  the  doubling  of  his 
rate  largely  to  his  simple  determination  to  "speed  up." 
The  results  of  this  study  and  the  observations  of 
teachers  show  that  as  a  general  rule  those  pupils  who 
really  displayed  a  determination  to  improve  their  rate 
did  so  to  a  notable  degree.  The  pupils  who  secured  the 
slightest  increases  were  largely  those  who  failed  to 
"warm  up"  to  the  experiment  and  who  were  lacking 
in  the  strong  determination  to  succeed.  Indifference 
to  improvement  in  their  habits  of  reading  on  the  part 
of  individuals  may  be  justly  expected  to  produce  in- 
different results.  The  observations  of  the  teachers 
in  this  experiment  offer  sufficient  corrob oration  of  this 
conclusion. 

When  first  reading  Huey's  "Psychology  and  Peda- 
gogy of  Reading"  the  writer  became  convinced  of  the 
fundamental  importance  of  this  factor.  The  writer's 
rate  in  reading  Huey  at  that  time  was  about  35  pages 
per  hour.  Realizing  that  it  was  unnecessarily  slow,  he 
determined  to  bring  it  up  to  a  higher  level,  and  before 
finishing  Huey,  succeeded  in  reaching  a  speed  of  50 
pages  per  hour  without  any  noticeable  impairment 
of  comprehension.  It  is  thought  that  the  incident  is 
but  typical  of  an  improvement  which  can  be  effected 
by  practically  every  reader  who  becomes  determined 
to  bring  it  about.  Much  of  the  ordinary  reading  is  of 
the  lackadaisical,  dead-level,  plodding  type  broken  by 
many  gaps  of  attention  and  much  unconscious  day- 
dreaming. A  sudden  determination  to  "speed  up" 


THE   RATE    OF   SILENT   READING  73 

effects  a  change  in  the  whole  mental  attitude ;  it  shoots 
the  attention  rapidly  over  the  subject  matter,  and 
replaces  listlessness  with  spirit  and  dynamic  energy. 
In  fact,  the  statement  can  probably  be  made  —  and  the 
results  of  the  present  investigation  largely  bear  it  out — 
that  practically  every  reader  who  strongly  wills  to 
increase  his  rate,  can  actually  do  so  —  provided,  of 
course,  he  employs  some  suitable  means.  The  cases  of 
Huey,  of  a  number  of  graduate  students,  of  Fordyce, 
the  last  of  whom  also  employed  supplementary  exer- 
cises, are  so  many  instances  in  point. 

While  the  powerful  influence  exerted  by  a  strong 
determination  in  accelerating  the  reading  rate  is  per- 
haps rather  obvious,  the  writer  believes  that  this  factor 
hag  not  been  sufficiently  stressed,  at  least  explicitly, 
in  most  of  the  literature  on  the  subject.  It  cannot 
always  be  presumed  to  be  present  in  the  pupils.  It 
must  be  aroused  and  enlisted  in  the  enterprise.  Other- 
wise, the  undertaking  in  spite  of  endless  technique 
and  elaborately  worked-out  methods  is  foredoomed  to 
failure. 

11.    The  Pressure  of  a  Time  Control 

This  is  a  factor  which  the  present  investigation  found 
to  be  of  value  in  stimulating  and  maintaining  a  high 
rate  of  speed.  When  the  pupil  realizes  that  there  is  no 
check  upon  his  performance,  no  means  .of  determining 
his  rate,  there  is  the  tendency  for  daydreaming  and 
unconscious  wanderings  of  the  attention  to  occur.  Not 


74  SILENT   READING 

that  these  disturbing  elements  are  willfully  invited, 
but  the  mental  attitude  is  such  as  to  offer  no  strong 
barrier  to  their  entrance.  The  consciousness  that  a 
clock  or  watch  is  accurately  measuring  the  pupil's 
rate  of  reading  induces  a  mental  "set,"  which  focuses 
the  attention  directly  upon  the  task  at  hand,  and  which 
is  incompatible  both  with  lackadaisical  poring  and 
leisurely  dawdling. 

In  other  words  the  pressure  of  a  time  check  serves 
to  "key  up"  the  mind  to  a  superior  level  of  attention, 
which  enables  it  to  devote  its  whole  conscious  energy 
to  the  gathering  of  the  thought  from  the  printed  page 
and  saves  it  from  the  necessity  of  struggling  against 
irrelevant  ideas  which  tend  to  draw  the  attention  away 
from  the  context.  This  is  a  device  which,  as  will  be 
pointed  out  later,  is  applicable  to  the  three  types  of 
training  which  have  been  devised  to  accelerate  the 
reading  rate.  An  ordinary  clock  will  suffice,  though  a 
stop  watch  is  more  convenient.  In  any  type  of  train- 
ing where  speed  is  one  of  the  qualities  aimed  at,  it 
would  seem  that  this  factor  cannot  well  be  omitted. 

12.    Individual  Graph 

An  effective  presentation  of  the  story  told  by  the 
clock  in  measuring  the  pupil's  speed  may  be  secured 
by  drawing  the  result  on  a  chart.  The  single  line 
ascending  or  descending  tells  the  pupil  the  story  of  his 
success  or  failure.  It  is  simple,  impressive,  and  compre- 
hended at  a  glance.  There  is  no  need  for  the  comparing 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  75 

of  arithmetical  figures.  The  direction  or  slant  of  the 
line  tells  the  whole  story.  The  ascent  of  the  line  be- 
comes a  source  of  joy;  its  decline  a  source  of  grief. 
The  latter  tells,  moreover,  in  a  convincing  manner  the 
necessity  for  greater  effort  on  the  next  occasion.  The 
zest  of  a  game,  the  spirit  of  a  combat  is  aroused.  The 
pupil  becomes  determined  to  "make  that  line  go  up." 
As  will  be  indicated  later  on,  in  the  exposition  of  the 
effectiveness  of  the  various  devices  employed  in  the 
present  investigation,  the  individual  graph  made  one 
of  the  strongest  appeals  to  the  pupils  and  proved  one 
of  the  most  effective  instruments  in  stimulating  their 
speed  in  reading. 

13.    The  Class  Chart 

This  served  as  a  supplement  to  the  individual  graph. 
It  consisted  essentially  in  portraying  the  average  or 
median  of  the  class.  Besides  this  the  highest  and 
lowest  individual  record  for  each  day  was  traced  on 
each  chart.  This  showed  the  amount  of  variation 
and  the  room  for  possible  improvement  open  for  many 
members  of  the  class.  It  had  a  stimulating  effect  upon 
the  slowest  members  of  the  class,  causing  each  one  of 
them  to  strive  not  to  be  the  last,  which  meant  repre- 
sentation at  the  bottom  of  the  class  chart  for  that  day. 
A  similar  effect  was  produced  upon  the  faster  ones, 
causing  each  one  of  them  to  strive  for  the  honor  of 
achieving  the  best  record  with  the  consequent  repre- 
sentation at  the  top  of  the  chart  for  that  day. 


\ 

76  SILENT   READING 

The  class  chart  did  not  admit,  however,  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  extensive  comparison  between  individual 
members  of  the  class  which  were  afforded  by  the  in- 
dividual graph.  The  consequence  was  that  it  did  not 
secure  the  rather  intense  motivation  effected  by  the 
latter.  It  enabled  comparisons  to  be  made,  however, 
between  the  different  classes  in  the  schools.  The 
character  of  the  motive  which  it  engendered  differed 
from  that  prompted  by  the  individual  graph.  It 
fostered  interest  and  loyalty  to  the  class  as  a  whole. 
It  created  the  desire  to  see  the  class  as  a  whole  excel, 
instead  of  centering  the  attention  solely  upon  the 
individual's  own  performance  It  was  a  type  of 
motivation  worth  developing.  It  served,  furthermore, 
to  hold  the  interest  of  the  class  as  a  unit  in  the  progress 
of  the  experiment. 

To  secure  the  best  effect  the  class  chart  should  be 
large  and  should  be  placed  conspicuously  in  the  class- 
room where  pupils  can  easily  see  it.  They  should  also 
be  encouraged  to  look  at  the  chart  of  the  other  grade 
or  grades,  in  order  to  see  where  their  class  stands  in 
comparison. 

In  this  study  most  of  the  class  charts  were  kept 
by  the  teacher,  who  computed  the  class  average  or 
median.  She  also  ascertained  the  highest  and  lowest 
individual  rates  each  day  and  recorded  them  on  the  class 
chart.  In  the  upper  grades  the  keeping  of  the  class 
chart  may  be  assigned  to  one  of  the  more  capable  pupils 
if  the  teacher  so  desires.  It  entails  but  a  minimum  of 


THE   RATE   OF  SILENT   READING  .77 

labor  and  exercises  a  stimulating  influence  in  promoting 
a  commendable  esprit  de  corps  which  in  turn  helps  to 
maintain  the  continued  interest  of  the  class  as  a  unit 
in  the  progress  of  the  experiment.  It  is  one  of  those 
factors  which  strengthen  directly  the  morale  of  the 
group  as  a  whole  and  exercise  a  reflex  reenforcing  in- 
fluence upon  the  individual  attitude  as  well. 

14.   Reaction  Time 

The  perceptual  span,  the  fixation-pause,  the  inter- 
fixation  movement,  the  return  sweep,  have  all  a  large 
physiological  core.  The  general  capacity  of  quickness  of 
perception  is  doubtless  one  of  the  elements  conditioning 
the  speed  of  reading.  The  sensory  data  must  be  trans- 
mitted over  the  afferent  optic  nerves  to  the  visual  and 
thought  centers  in  the  brain;  the  complex  response  trans- 
mitted over  the  efferent  neural  paths  involves  as  a  rule 
not  only  the  motor  aspects  of  perception  but  usually 
those  of  vocalization  as  well.  This  is  evidenced  by  the 
usual  presence  of  inner  speech  in  silent  reading.  While 
it  is  true  that  the  interfixation  movements  and  the  re- 
turn sweeps  consume  but  a  small  percentage  of  the  total 
reading  time,  it  is  probable  that  the  neural  factor  in- 
fluences the  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses  as  well  as 
the  subsequent  movement. 

Here,  however,  as  in  the  case  of  the  central  factor,  it 
is  doubtless  true  that  the  speed  of  the  reading  habits  of 
most  individuals  is  well  within  the  upper  limit  of  their 
neural  reaction  time.  Huey  reports  the  visual  reaction 


78  SILENT   READING 

time  to  be  206. 90o-  (average  deviation  20.7(r);  while 
Dodge  quotes  averages  ranging  from  151.00<r  (mean 
variation  9.9<r)  to  181. 00<r.  These  appear  to  be  shorter 
than  the  average  duration  of  a  fixation-pause  in  reading. 
After  a  study  of  the  comparative  length  of  the  fixation- 
pause  and  the  visual  reaction  time,  Schmidt  concludes  : 
"It  is  not  probable  that  the  average  of  the  pauses  in  a 
given  selection  would  be  shorter  in  duration  than  the 
reaction  time  of  the  eyes." 

Furthermore,  Schmidt,  whose  technique  was  well 
adapted  to  secure  accurate  measurement,  reports  that 
the  rate  of  the  interfixation  movements  and  of  "the 
return  sweep  is  not  absolutely  constant  in  the  case  of 
any  one  individual,  variations  from  time  to  time  being 
by  no  means  uncommon."  Here  again  there  is  an  upper 
physiological  limit  to  speed  of  reading,  but  the  rate  of 
an  individual's  ordinary  reading  seldom  approaches 
within  even  striking  distance  of  this  maximal  neural 
limit  fixed  by  the  rate  of  the  ocular  neural  conductivity. 
Whether  this  neural  reaction  time  is  itself  subject  to 
improvement  through  training  is  an  interesting  question 
upon  which  the  present  study  seeks  to  throw  some  light. 

15.    The  Visual  Type  of  Imagery 

In  the  literature  of  the  psychology  of  reading  there 
are  found  some  writers  who  think  that  the  speed  of 
reading  is  largely  determined  by  the  subject's  dominant 
type  of  imagery.  Quantz  (26)  interprets  the  results 
of  some  of  his  experiments  to  indicate  the  superior  ra- 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  79 

pidity  of  readers  employing  the  visual  type  of  imagery 
over  those  using  the  auditory  type.  Quantz  further 
concludes  that  uthe  motor  tendency  in  any  degree  has 
an  influence  detrimental  to  the  rapidity  of  reading,  and 
the  stronger  the  tendency,  the  greater  the  hindrance." 
Schmidt  states  quite  definitely  that  the  speed  of  read- 
ing is  conditioned  by  the  dominant  mode  of  imaging. 
The  visual  type  constitutes  the  rapid  readers,  the  motor 
type  the  slowest,  while  the  "auditory  type  ranges  be- 
tween the  two."  As  the  whole  question  of  imagery  in 
reading  is  closely  tied  up  with  the  problem  of  speed 
in  reading,  a  more  detailed  consideration  of  the  influence 
of  the  various  types  of  imagery  upon  the  reading  rate 
and  an  examination  of  the  evidence  on  this  point  will 
be  found  in  Chapter  VI  -  -  Training  in  Perception. 

Miscellaneous 

Besides  the  factors  just  enumerated  there  are  others 
whose  influence*  upon  the  rate  of  reading  has  engaged 
the  attention  of  various  investigators.  Beer,  Messmer 
(43),  and  Dearborn  investigated  the  influence  of  the 
length  of  words  upon  the  rate.  Both  Beer  and  Mess- 
mer found  that  a  passage  in  which  monosyllabic  words 
predominated  required  more  time.  This  fact  was  as- 
cribed to  the  relatively  greater  number  of  ideas  con- 
tained therein.  Dearborn,  however,  maintains:  "It  is 
not  the  short  words  as  such,  but  the  words  which  cannot 
easily  be  grouped  with  others  which  necessitate  separate 
fixation." 


80  SILENT   READING 

The  investigation  conducted  by  Huey  to  determine 
the  effect  of  changes  in  the  size  of  the  type  upon  the 
rate  shows  that  the  unit  of  recognition  of  reading  is 
but  very  slightly  affected  by  changes  in  the  sensory 
content,  e.g.  changes  in  the  size  of  the  type  do  not 
cause  proportionate  changes  in  the  number  and  length 
of  the  pauses.  Consequently,  the  rate  of  reading  is  but 
very  slightly  affected.  These  last  mentioned  investi- 
gations and  others  involving  relative  legibility  of  letters 
have  not,  in  the  judgment  of  the  writer,  disclosed 
factors  of  any  appreciable  influence  upon  the  rate  which 
could  be  incorporated  into  types  of  training  to  increase 
the  speed  in  silent  reading. 

It  is  thought  that  every  factor  which  experimental  in- 
vestigation or  strong  a  priori  reasons  have  indicated  to 
be  of  consequence  in  conditioning  the  rate  of  reading  has 
been  enumerated  above.  The  attempt  has  been  made 
to  blend  the  factors  into  various  methods  of  training  to 
accelerate  the  rate  in  silent  reading. '  Three  distinct 
methods  have  been  formulated.  They  possess  many 
factors  in  common.  They  differ  from  one  another 
chiefly  because  each  method  is  based  upon  a  distinct 
principle  of  training. 

By  applying  these  methods  of  training  to  hundreds 
of  pupils  in  various  grades  of  the  elementary  schools, 
three  to  eight  inclusive,  evidence  of  an  empirical  nature 
will  be  secured  to  ascertain  how  speed  can  be  developed 
and  to  determine  some  of  the  factors  conditioning  its 
development.  The  application  of  these  types  of  train- 


THE   RATE   OF   SILENT   READING  81 

ing  to  pupils  in  the  schoolroom  serves  therefore  as  an 
actual  test  of  the  efficacy  of  the  previously  mentioned 
factors  and  renders  possible  the  valuation  of  their  effec- 
tiveness. The  formulation  of  the  three  types  of 
training  which  have  been  developed  will  accordingly  be 
presented  in  the  following  chapters. 


CHAPTER  IV 
TYPE   I.     TRAINING  IN  RAPID  SILENT  READING 

ON  the  general  principle  of  psychology  that  one 
learns  to  do  a  thing  by  actually  doing  it,  it  would  seem 
logical  to  assume  that  one  could  learn  to  read  rapidly 
by  practice  in  rapid  reading.  In  contrast  with  methods 
which  analyze  the  reading  complex  into  its  main  pro- 
cesses, and  then  devise  types  of  training  adapted  to 
improve  each  of  these  specific  processes  separately, 
this  may  be  said  to  be  the  direct  synthetic  mode  of 
attack  —  training  in  the  whole  organized  process  of 
reading  itself.  This  would  seem  to  be  the  simplest 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  indispensable  type  of 
training. 

In  the  case  of  the  specialized  type  of  training  adapted 
to  secure  the  improvement  of  a  single  specific  process, 
such  as  visual  span,  or  character  of  eye-movement,  in 
the  reading  complex,  there  is  always  the  possibility  that 
the  improvement  effected  under  controlled  circum- 
stances may  not  be  carried  over  into  the  actual  reading 
situation,  where  the  circumstances  affecting  the  func- 
tioning of  a  single  isolated  process  can  no  longer  be  con- 
trolled. This  may  be  due,  among  other  causes,  to  the 

82 


TRAINING   IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          83 

change  in  the  reading  situation  which  produces  a  corre- 
sponding modification  in  the  response ;  or  it  may  be  due 
to  the  simultaneous  functioning  of  other  processes  in  the 
complex  which  tend  more  or  less  to  inhibit  or  otherwise 
to  affect  the  mode  of  operation  of  the  specific  factor  sub- 
jected to  the  specialized  training.  Thus,  for  example, 
training  to  increase  the  perceptual  span  by  means  of 
tachistoscopic  exposures  of  single  disconnected  phrases 
may  actually  —  at  least  in  the  case  of  children  —  suc- 
ceed in  enlarging  the  visual  span  for  such  a  type  of  read- 
ing. But  whether  the  visual  span  enlarged  for  that 
specific  type  of  perception  would  carry  over  into  a 
different  situation,  such  as  obtains  in  the  reading  of  a 
selection  of  continuous  closely  related  subject  matter, 
is  uncertain. 

For,  in  the  latter  case,  the  situation  differs  consider- 
ably from  the  former.  The  subject  matter  is  no  longer 
divided  into  phrases  adapted  for  perception  in  a  single 
fixation,  but  has  all  the  words  closely  following  one  an- 
other in  the  printed  line.  There  is,  furthermore,  a  cen- 
tral thread  of  thought  running  through  the  various 
phrases  and  sentences  of  the  context,  which  furnishes 
meaning  premonitions  of  the  coming  words  and  phrases, 
thus  enabling  them  to  be  grasped  in  much  less  than  the 
normal  perception  time.  Their  meanings  are  more 
or  less  anticipated  and  peripheral  vision  seems  sufficient 
to  confirm  the  correctness  of  the  conjecture,  without 
requiring  direct  fixation  of  the  foveal  area.  The  well- 
nigh  complete  absence  of  these  meaning  premonitions 


84  SILENT   READING 

in  the  reading  of  discrete  words,  or  phrases,  exposed 
serially  by  means  of  the  tachistoscope,  shows  how 
radically  one  reading  situation  may  differ  from  another. 
It  illustrates,  moreover,  the  difference  in  the  factors 
which  are  called  into  play,  as  well  as  the  difference  in 
their  mode  of  functioning  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
printed  symbols,  according  as  the  reading  situation 
varies. 

Considerations  such  as  the  above  serve  to  emphasize 
the  value  of  the  direct  method  of  attacking  the  problem 
of  accelerating  the  rate  in  silent  reading.  They  show 
the  need  of  training  in  various  reading  situations  by 
supplying  different  types  of  material  and  presenting 
different  aims  or  purposes  for  which  the  reading  is  to 
be  done.  They  indicate,  likewise,  the  necessity  of  em- 
ploying certain  precautionary  devices  to  effect  the 
transfer  of  the  improvement  in  the  functioning  of  a 
single  specific  process  in  the  reading  complex  which 
was  secured  under  controlled  conditions,  over  into  the 
ordinary  type  of  reading.  In  the  present  investigation 
the  specialized  types  of  training  have,  in  every  case, 
been  supplemented  with  practice  in  actual  rapid  read- 
ing in  order  that  the  improvement  effected  in  a  single 
factor  may  be  rendered  more  likely  to  persist  in  ordinary 
reading. 

The  general  question  of  the  transfer  of  specialized 
training  over  into  totally  distinct  and  different  mental 
operations  is  not  raised  here.  All  the  specific  processes 
that  have  been  singled  out  for  training  in  the  present 


TRAINING  IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          85 

investigation  have  not  only  a  close  kinship  but  many 
elements  identical  with  the  ordinary  reading  complex. 
The  manner  of  effecting  a  persistence  of  the  improved 
functioning  of  a  single  process  becomes  largely  a 
matter  of  adapting  the  supplementary  reading  situa- 
tion so  as  to  evoke  the  desired  type  of  functioning  of 
the  factor  subjected  to  the  previous  specialized  train- 
ing. This  will  be  exemplified  in  the  subsequent  exposi- 
tion of  the  specialized  types  of  training  —  No.  II  and 
III.  These  considerations  are  mentioned  here  to 
differentiate  clearly  the  types  of  training  developed  in 
this  study,  and  to  point  out  the  characteristic  of  this 
first  type  of  training,  namely,  its  direct  synthetic  mode 
of  attack. 

The  present  habits  of  reading  are  largely  the  result 
of  indifferent  practices.  Up  until  the  last  few  years 
there  has  been  little  or  no  recognition  of  the  value  of 
speed  in  reading  and  consequently  but  little  or  no 
systematic  attempt  to  acquire  it.  The  school's  stress 
upon  oral  exhibition  has  excluded  such  an  attempt. 
The  first  step  in  the  development  of  habits  of  speed  is 
the  breaking  up  of  the  present  slow,  plodding  habits  of 
reading.  Habit,  as  James  has  pointed  out  in  his  classic 
treatment  of  this  subject,  is  best  overcome  by  a  con- 
trary habit.  So,  in  reading,  slow,  dawdling  habits  are 
best  destroyed  by  practice  hi  the  opposite  type  of 
activity  —  rapid,  alert  reading  —  until  that  type  be- 
comes habitual. 

To  hasten  the  establishment  of  such  habits  and  the 


86  SILENT   READING 

breaking  up  of  the  defective  ones,  the  reading  should 
be  done  at  top  speed.  This  will  probably  cause  some 
difficulty  at  first  and  be  somewhat  trying.  The  latter 
seems  to  be  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  the  sub- 
stitution of  one  type  of  habit  for  its  opposite.  Read- 
ing at  maximum  speed,  however,  seems  to  be  more 
effective  and  more  prompt  in  the  establishment  of  the 
desired  type  of  ocular  motor  reactions  than  the 
"gradual  tapering  off"  of  the  slow  dead-level  plodding 
pace. 

To  secure  the  highest  speed  and  to  prevent  a  relapse 
into  the  slower  eye-movement  habits,  certain  devices 
are  essential.  First,  the  reading  stretch  should  be  brief. 
Preliminary  experimentation  showed  that  it  was  very 
difficult  to  maintain  the  highest  pitch  of  speed  for  more 
than  three  or  four  minutes.  The  element  of  fatigue 
quickly  sets  in  where  the  effort  is  of  the  most  intensive 
sort  and  causes  a  decline  in  the  rate  of  speed.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  the  present  investigation,  the  reading 
period  was  divided  into  stretches  lasting  usually  two  or 
three  minutes  with  an  occasional  variation  of  a  four- 
minute  period.  The  instructions  stated  that  a  reading 
stretch  should  seldom,  if  ever,  exceed  four  minutes. 
The  pressure  of  a  time-control,  the  individual  graph, 
and  the  class  chart  were  likewise  helpful  in  maintain- 
ing the  speed  at  the  highest  rate  of  which  the  readers 
were  capable  at  the  time. 

All  the  factors  enumerated  in  Chapter  III,  with  the 
exception  of  No.  2  —  Training  to  Decrease  Vocaliza- 


TRAINING  IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          87 

tion,  and  No.  3,  —  Training  in  Perception,  have  been 
incorporated  into  this  type  of  training  in  rapid,  silent 
reading.  The  inclusion  of  all  these  factors,  and  the 
presentation  in  brief  outline  of  the  resultant  method 
proved  a  rather  difficult  task.  While  the  adequate 
exposition  of  many  of  the  factors  involved,  and  of 
their  relative  importance,  would  have  required  con- 
siderable space,  it  was  felt  that  the  statement  of  the 
method,  which  was  to  serve  the  teachers  also  as  a  set  of 
"directions  for  procedure,"  should  be  brief.  It  is,  at 
best,  a  somewhat  difficult  and  delicate  undertaking 
to  translate  a  set  of  written  directions  into  the  correct 
mode  of  procedure.  If  the  directions  are  involved  and 
complicated,  the  difficulty  is  enhanced,  and  the  chances 
for  confusion  and  divergences  of  procedure  are  corre- 
spondingly increased.  Accordingly,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  present  the  essentials  of  the  method  in  the 
following  brief  outline  or  statement  of  Type  I  - 
Training  in  Rapid  Silent  Reading.  A  copy  of  these 
directions  was  sent  to  each  teacher  using  this  method. 

STATEMENT  OF 
TYPE  I.    TRAINING  IN  RAPID  SILENT  READING 

For  the  Teacher.  The  purpose  of  this  investigation  is  to 
determine  the  extent  to  which  speed  in  silent  reading  can  be 
increased  by  training  the  pupils  in  this  practice  for  a  specified 
length  of  time.  The  practical  value  of  a  type  of  training 
which  will  accelerate  the  rate  of  silent  reading  is  obvious. 
Your  cooperation  in  this  study  will  aid  in  definitely  ascer- 


88  SILENT   READING 

taining  means  of  accomplishing  this  end.  The  results  of  this 
investigation  will  be  sent  to  every  teacher  participating  in 
the  work. 

The  period  of  training  in  rapid  silent  reading  should  last 
rom  April  8  until  May  29.  It  should  replace  the  regular 
work  in  reading  and  no  other  classroom  time  should  be  de- 
voted to  reading.  Thirty  minutes  per  day  should  be  allowed 
for  the  work.  Since  the  time  element  enters  into  all  the 
work,  a  clock  should  be  placed  in  the  front  of  the  classroom  so 
that  it  can  be  seen  by  all  the  pupils.  The  method  should 
consist  essentially  of  alternate  reading  and  reproduction. 
The  reading  should  be  timed  and  a  measure  of  the  amount 
read  in  the  time  allowed  should  be  regularly  taken.  Pupils 
should  be  kept  informed  of  their  speed  of  reading.  Repro- 
duction should  consist  both  of  free  paraphrase  —  orally, 
or  in  writing  —  and  of  answers  to  specific  questions  based 
on  the  text.  The  length  of  the  reading  period  and  of  the 
reproduction  period  should  vary  with  the  grade  of  the  pupils 
and  with  the  subject  matter.  In  general,  however,  the 
reproduction  should  not  occupy  more  than  one-quarter  of  the 
total  time  allowed  for  the  exercise. 

Only  interesting  material  should  be  selected.  It  should 
also  be  easily  within  the  understanding  of  the  pupils.  Since 
the  object  is  to  set  up  habits  of  rapid  reading,  emphasis  upon 
the  simplicity  of  the  selection  is  necessary. 

In  order  to  assist  the  pupils  in  covering  as  much  reading 
matter  as  possible,  a  definite  preparation  may  be  made  con- 
sisting :  (a)  of  thought  preparation,  or  (6)  of  word  prepara- 
tion, or  (c)  of  both.  The  thought  preparation  should  con- 
sist of  such  an  introduction  by  commentary  or  by  the  ques- 
tion-answer process  as  will  arouse  interest  and  enlist  the 
attention  of  the  pupils.  This  preparation  should  in  no  case 
be  long.  For  the  word  preparation,  the  teacher  should 
select  such  words  as  in  her  judgment  would  be  unfamiliar  to 


TRAINING   IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          89 

the  pupils,  and  should  present  them  briefly,  explaining  their 
meaning.  The  preparation  —  both  thought  and  word  — 
may  be  abridged  or  even  omitted  when  the  material  is  such 
as  to  give  no  difficulty.  In  no  case  should  the  preparation 
occupy  more  than  five  minutes  of  the  30  assigned  to  the  exer- 
cise. 

Each  pupil  should  keep  a  chart  of  his  daily  performance, 
and  a  complete  chart  of  the  daily  class  performance  should 
be  conspicuously  displayed  in  the  classroom. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  directions  to  pupils  given  by  each 
teacher  concerned  in  this  investigation  be  substantially  the 
same.  The  following  points  are  suggested  indicating  the 
nature  of  the  direction.  Literal  adherence  to  them  is  not 
requested.  Their  spirit,  however,  should  be  maintained. 

Point  out  the  advantage  of  a  rapid  rate  of  reading.  Try 
to  get  the  children  to  see  this  in  terms  of  an  addition  to  their 
own  interests  and  pleasure.  Carefully  direct  them  where 
to  begin  the  assignment  of  the  day.  See  that  they  all  begin 
at  the  same  tune  and  at  the  same  place  in  the  text.  Say  in 
substance :  "  Read  it  as  fast  as  you  can.  I  want  to  see  how 
much  you  can  read  in  two  (or  three)  minutes.  But  remem- 
ber that  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  tell  me  about  what  you 
have  read  so  do  not  skip  anything.  Try  to  read  faster  to-day 
than  you  did  yesterday."  See  that  the  pupils  have  a  pencil 
at  hand  and  direct  them  to  stop  reading  at  once  as  soon  as 
you  say  "stop."  Direct  them  then  to  mark  the  end  of  the 
line  which  they  are  reading  when  told  to  stop.  Pupils  may 
now  reproduce  what  they  have  read  as  indicated  above.  In 
a  similar  manner,  reading  and  reproduction  are  to  be  con- 
tinued till  the  end  of  the  30  minutes  assigned.  Have  the 
pupils  then  report  the  number  of  pages  and  lines  beyond  the 
last  full  page  which  they  read. 

As  part  of  your  preparation  for  the  exercise  you  will  be 
expected  to  know  the  average  number  of  words  per  line  in 


90  SILENT   READING 

the  matter  which  is  being  read  and  the  number  of  lines  per 
page  (if  pages  are  broken  by  illustrations,  or  for  other  reasons, 
special  account  of  these  pages  will  have  to  be  taken).  From 
the  pupils'  reports  as  to  pages  and  lines  read,  on  this  and 
subsequent  assignments  for  the  day,  estimate  the  number 
of  words  read  that  day  and  divide  by  the  total  number  of 
minutes  used  in  reading.  This  will  give  the  number  of  words 
read  per  minute.  Each  pupil  should  figure  out  his  own  score, 
and  should  immediately  enter  it  upon  the  chart,  which  will 
thus  serve  as  a  record  of  his  daily  progress  in  silent  reading. 

On  May  1,  and  May  28,  besides  the  record  of  the  aver- 
age number  of  words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during 
the  total  reading  time,  a  record  of  the  average  number  of 
words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during  each  of  the 
various  reading  periods  constituting  the  total  time  devoted 
to  reading  on  each  of  the  above  mentioned  days  should  also 
be  kept. 

On  May  2,  and  May  29,  the  pupils  should  be  tested 
with  the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Tests,  Forms  II  and  III, 
respectively.  As  soon  as  possible  after  May  29,  a  copy 
(or  the  originals)  of  the  individual  charts,  the  class  chart, 
and  a  record  of  results  and  observations  should  be  mailed 
to  the  Bureau  of  Educational  Research,  University  of 
Illinois,  Urbana,  Illinois. 

To  clear  away  any  misconceptions  in  regard  to  the 
various  points  in  the  statement  of  the  method,  and  to 
insure  uniformity  in  all  the  important  steps  in  the 
procedure,  a  representative  from  each  of  the  school 
systems  participating  in  the  experiment  was  invited 
to  a  conference  at  the  University  of  Illinois.  Here  the 
application  of  the  method  was  demonstrated  to  the 
visiting  delegates  by  a  teacher  and  her  pupils  from 


TRAINING   IN    RAPID   SILENT   READING          91 

one  of  the  Champaign  public  schools.  Miss  Davis,  the 
teacher  demonstrating  the  method,  had  previously 
been  instructed  in  its  application  by  Dr.  Buckingham 
and  the  writer.  Besides  the  ocular  demonstration, 
queries  from  the  delegates  concerning  various  details 
of  the  method  were  answered,  and  its  adjustment  to 
particular  classroom  conditions  was  explained. 

As  a  result  of  the  questions  which  arose  at  this  con- 
ference, the  following  topics  seem  to  require  additional 
discussion :  (l)  Length  of  Reading  Period,  (2)  Alter- 
nate Reading  and  Reproduction,  (3)  Thought  Prepara- 
tion, (4)  Word  Preparation,  (5)  Directions  to  Pupils. 

1.   Length  of  Reading  Period 

Thirty  minutes  was  specified  as  the  length  of  the 
reading  period  for  all  the  grades  participating  in  the 
experiment.  This  amount  was  decided  upon  after 
investigations  showed  a  range  from  approximately 
120  minutes  devoted  to  reading  in  some  third  grades  to 
only  about  15  minutes  allotted  to  reading  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  in  some  schools.  Furthermore, 
considerable  variation  in  the  amount  of  time  devoted  to 
reading  in  even  the  same  grades  was  found  to  exist 
among  school  systems  in  different  cities.  Since  the 
investigation  extended  to  all  the  grades  from  the  third 
to  the  eighth,  a  reading  period  that  was  to  obtain 
throughout  these  six  grades  would  necessarily  have  to 
be  somewhat  of  a  compromise  between  the  extremes. 
The  heavy  curriculum  of  an  eighth  grade  precluded  the 


92  SILENT   READING 

possibility  of  devoting  an  hour  and  a  half  daily  to 
reading.  On  the  other  hand,  the  teachers  in  the  third 
grade  felt  that  the  abbreviation  of  the  reading  time 
to  a  single  15-minute  period  could  not  be  done  without 
causing  a  rather  serious  impairment  of  the  progress  of 
the  pupils.  Accordingly,  a  30-minute  period  was  de- 
cided upon  as  representing  an  approximate  average  of 
the  amount  of  time  devoted  to  reading  by  the  six  upper 
grades  in  the  elementary  schools. 

The  allotment  of  this  specific  amount  of  time  carries 
with  it,  therefore,  no  implication  of  a  normative  char- 
acter. It  does  not  pretend  to  represent  the  proper 
length  of  the  reading  period  for  all  the  six  grades  men- 
tioned. The  amount  of  time  assigned  to  reading  will 
naturally  vary  from  grade  to  grade,  less  time  being 
allotted  to  the  formal  reading  period  in  the  upper  than 
in  the  lower  grades.  A  reading  period  of  30  minutes 
was  decided  upon  in  the  present  investigation  solely 
for  the  sake  of  uniformity.  For,  obviously,  the  amount 
of  time  devoted  to  the  training  must  be  uniform  if 
comparisons  are  to  be  made  between  the  amounts  of 
progress  made  by  the  different  grades.  This  uniformity 
in  the  allotment  of  time  renders  possible  a  comparison 
of  the  extent  of  gain  registered  by  the  third  grade 
pupils  with  that  made  by,  say,  the  fifth  or  eighth 
grade  pupils.  Without  this  uniformity  in  the  length 
of  the  reading  period  throughout  all  the  grades  a  com- 
mon basis  of  comparison  would  be  wanting. 

Comparisons,  such  as  the  above,  may  be  expected  to 


TRAINING   IN    RAPID   SILENT   READING          93 

throw  some  light  on  the  interesting  question :  In 
what  grades  do  the  pupils  show  the  greatest  susceptibil- 
ity to  improvement  in  reading  rate  ?  From  the  answer 
to  the  above  question  there  flows  a  corollary  of  practical 
value  to  the  school  concerning  the  relative  stress 
to  be  placed  upon  the  formation  of  habits  of  rapid 
silent  reading  in  the  different  grades  of  the  elementary 
school. 

2.    Alternate  Reading  and  Reproduction 

While  this  study  is  concerned  chiefly  with  the  accelera- 
tion of  the  rate,  it  is  recognized  that  the  development  of 
speed  at  the  expense  of  comprehension  does  not  make 
for  efficiency  in  reading.  Accordingly,  means  were 
adopted  not  only  to  safeguard  the  comprehension  and 
to  prevent  its  impairment,  but  also  to  effect,  if  possible, 
a  development  in  assimilative  capacity  that  should  ad- 
vance pari  passu  with  the  growth  in  speed.  For  this 
purpose  after  each  reading  stretch  of  two  or  three 
minutes  the  pupils  were  called  upon  to  reproduce. 
Recognizing  that  reading  in  actual  life  situations  is 
done  not  for  one  constant  adamantine  purpose,  but  for 
a  great  variety  of  ends,  such  as  to  "get  the  gist,"  to 
answer  certain  specific  questions,  to  get  the  central 
thought,  to  secure  a  certain  point  of  information,  the 
reproduction  in  the  present  study  was  made  to  assume 
a  like  variety  of  forms.  Sometimes  a  pupil  would 
be  called  upon  to  reproduce  the  main  thought  of  the 
selection ;  at  other  times  specific  items  of  information, 


94  SILENT   READING 

important  facts,  names,  and  causes,  would  be  requested. 
Thus  the  development  of  a  single,  narrow  type  of 
reading  ability  was  guarded  against,  and  a  rather  well- 
rounded,  many-sided  reading  activity  was  brought  into 
play. 

The  teacher  was  advised  to  have  her  questions  and 
her  other  methods  of  testing  the  comprehension  formu- 
lated, at  least  to  some  degree,  in  advance.  Preliminary 
experimentation  showed  that  no  small  amount  of  time 
was  lost  by  the  teacher  in  deciding  what  to  ask  about 
the  passage  just  read  by  the  pupils.  This  hesitancy 
and  indecision  slowed  up  the  whole  procedure,  consumed 
a  considerable  share  of  the  time,  and  reacted  unfavor- 
ably upon  the  "keyed-up"  mental  "set"  of  the  pupils. 
By  having  the  questions,  or  at  least  the  cues  to  them, 
written  in  the  margin  of  the  book,  this  source  of  wastage 
was  eliminated. 

The  teachers  were  advised  to  scatter  the  questions 
promiscuously  among  the  class,  so  that  every  pupil 
would  feel  himself  constantly  exposed  to  a  call.  This 
would  tend  to  prevent  skipping  or  skimming  and  insure 
perusal.  If  a  pupil  were  found  unable  to  answer  a 
simple  question  on  the  matter  he  purported  to  have 
read,  the  teacher  was  encouraged  to  test  him  in  the 
subsequent  reproductions  to  show  him  the  need  for 
greater  comprehension  in  his  reading  as  well  as  to 
prevent  cheating. 

Because  of  the  large  element  of  guesswork  which  they 
invite,  questions  of  a  simple  "Yes"  or  "No"  variety 


TRAINING   IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING  95 

were  not  encouraged.  Sometimes  the  reproduction 
was  in  writing.  This  insured  the  testing  of  each  pupil. 
Usually,  however,  oral  reproduction  was  called  for. 
Since  the  development  of  habits  of  speed  was  especially 
aimed  at,  the  suggestion  was  offered  that  the  reproduc- 
tion should  not,  as  a  rule,  be  too  detailed  —  demanding 
nonessential  particulars  and  points  which  a  reader  in 
an  actual  life  situation  would  seldom  be  expected  to 
remember.  Such  a  procedure  would  naturally  militate 
against  the  formation  of  habits  of  rapid  assimilation 
by  its  disproportionate  and  unnatural  stress  upon  un- 
important details.  It  would  tend  to  eliminate  the 
functioning  of  extra-foveal  vision,  by  necessitating 
the  careful  and  even  scrupulous  fixation  of  each 
word.  A  slow,  plodding  type  of  reading,  devoting  as 
much  time  to  the  fixation  of  a  mere  preposition  or 
article  as  to  the  subject  of  the  sentence  would  be 
the  not  unlikely  result  of  such  a  procedure. 

Preliminary  experimentation  disclosed  the  lurking 
of  another  danger  in  the  application  of  the  method. 
When  the  method  was  first  tested  out,  a  tendency  was 
observed  for  the  teacher  to  consume  the  bulk  of  the 
period  with  the  mechanical  details,  getting  the  class 
ready  to  read,  reproducing  the  material  read,  and 
computing  how  much  was  read.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, a  comparatively  small  portion  of  the 
total  time  was  devoted  to  actual  practice  in  rapid 
reading.  Thus,  in  the  preliminary  experimentation, 
a  teacher  was  found  to  consume  four  minutes  in  pre- 


96  SILENT   READING 

paring  the  class  to  begin  reading,  and  ten  minutes  in 
each  of  the  two  reproductions  which  consisted  of 
halting  questions  and  slower  answers.  The  result 
was  that  she  secured  but  two  reading  stretches  of  three 
minutes  each.  Thus,  out  of  a  30-minute  period,  but 
six  minutes  were  devoted  to  actual  reading.  This  was 
distinctly  contrary  to  what  was  intended.  Accordingly, 
the  instructions  stressed  the  necessity  of  prompt,  rapid 
reproduction. 

The  reproduction  should  be  short  and  brisk  —  just 
sufficient  to  convince  the  teacher  that  the  pupils  have 
grasped  what  they  have  read.  While  no  ironclad  rule 
was  laid  down  specifying  the  amount  of  time  to  be  used 
for  each  reproduction,  the  general  direction  was  given 
that  the  reproductions  all  together  should  not  consume 
more  than  one-quarter  of  the  total  reading  period.  The 
short  periods  for  reproduction  following  each  reading 
stretch  afforded  the  •  pupils  an  opportunity  for  tempo- 
rary relaxation,  thus  preventing  the  onset  of  fatigue 
and  rendering  it  possible  for  them  to  maintain  the 
reading  rate  at  its  highest  pitch. 

3.    Thought  Preparation 

The  introspection  of  trained  students  as  well  as 
casual  observation  show  that  most  readers  are  slow  in 
getting  started.  There  usually  occurs  what  psycholo- 
gists call  the  "warming  up"  (Anregung)  period,  before 
the  individual  gets  into  "the  swing"  of  it  (Gewohnung). 
The  length  of  this  warming  up  period  varies  with 


TRAINING   IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          97 

different  individuals  and  with  different  materials.  That 
such  a  warming  up  process  is  not  necessary,  how- 
ever, was  made  evident  by  preliminary  experimentation 
on  this  point.  The  pressure  of  a  time-control  proved 
instrumental  in  replacing  the  listless  attitude  with  one 
of  prompt,  concentrated  attention.  At  the  sound  of 
the  word  "Go,"  the  reader  started  at  a  high  rate  of 
speed.  A  record  of  the  number  of  words  read  during 
each  of  the  minutes  in  a  five-minute  period  shows  that  it 
is  possible  for  a  reader  to  strike  practically  his  highest 
level  of  speed  in  the  initial  minute.  The  reason  why 
the  reading  often  starts  at  a  slow  dawdling  pace  is 
because  the  interest  is  not  yet  aroused.  In  the  present 
study,  the  pressure  of  a  time-control  was  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  securing  prompt  concentration  of  attention. 
As  an  auxiliary  to  this  device,  however,  the  thought 
preparation  was  utilized  to  enlist  the  immediate  interest 
of  the  reader  in  the  selection.  The  thought  preparation 
was  of  different  kinds,  varying  largely  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  subject  matter.  Thus,  in  a  narrative  selec- 
tion, sometimes  it  was  found  advisable  to  trace  in  a  few 
deft  sentences  the  outline  of  the  story  leading  up  to  the 
climax  and  then  suddenly  stopping.  The  children  in 
many  such  cases  could  hardly  wait  for  the  signal  to 
begin,  so  anxious  were  they  to  "find  how  the  story 
came  out."  Sometimes  the  end  could  be  attained  by 
saying  a  few  words  about  one  of  the  main  characters, 
by  sketching  the  background  of  the  story,  or  by  briefly 
outlining  the  life  of  the  author.  The  character  of 


98  SILENT   READING 

the  thought  preparation  was  found,  furthermore,  to 
depend  upon  the  general  interest  manifested  by  the 
pupils  in  the  training  to  increase  speed.  In  many 
classes,  where  the  pupils  entered  whole-heartedly  into 
the  experiment,  no  such  device  was  needed  to  enlist 
the  already  keen  interest  of  the  pupils.  The  method 
was  left  rather  flexible  to  enable  the  teacher  to  adapt 
it  to  suit  the  different  types  of  subject  matter  and  the 
varying  needs  and  interests  of  the  class. 

4.    Word  Preparation 

In  the  lower  grades  especially,  it  was  found  advisable 
to  devote  a  few  minutes  to  a  consideration  of  the  mean- 
ing and  the  pronunciation  of  some  of  the  more  difficult 
or  unusual  words  which  the  pupils  would  encounter 
in  the  selection.  By  writing  them  on  the  blackboard 
along  with  their  meanings,  before  the  pupils  com- 
menced their  reading,  the  obstacles  which  might  have 
retarded  their  progress  were  eliminated  in  advance. 
In  the  upper  grades  but  little  of  this  word  preparation 
was  found  necessary.  As  a  rule,  it  occupied  but  a  few 
minutes.  In  no  case  was  the  preparation  —  both 
thought  and  word  —  permitted  to  consume  more  than 
five  minutes  of  the  thirty  assigned  to  the  exercise. 

5.    Directions  to  Pupils 

Considerable  care  was  taken  to  point  out  to  the  pupils 
the  advantages  of  rapid,  efficient  reading.  They  were 
made  to  feel  the  need  for  such  training  by  awakening 


TRAINING   IN   RAPID   SILENT   READING          99 

in  them  the  consciousness  of  their  present  slowness  and 
inefficiency.  From  this  need  there  sprang  the  earnest 
desire  to  secure  such  training.  They  were  given 
plainly  to  understand  that  in  the  measure  in  which  they 
entered  earnestly  and  enthusiastically  into  the  under- 
taking, just  in  that  measure  would  they  reap  the  results. 

In  an  endeavor  to  establish  regular,  rhythmical  habits 
of  eye-movements  and  to  utilize  to  some  extent  periph- 
eral vision  the  pupils  were  advised  to  "run  their  eyes 
along  the  line"  as  fast  as  they  could  grasp  its  meaning. 
The  pupils  were  urged  to  put  forth  their  best  efforts  to 
read  as  fast  as  possible.  The  Board  of  Education  of 
New  York  advises  that  pupils  be  urged  to  read  rapidly, 
but  not  to  hurry.  This  distinction  without  a  difference 
found  no  application  in  the  present  set  of  instructions. 
The  pupils  were  frankly  urged  to  "speed  up"  their 
reading.  The  reservation  adopted  here,  however,  was 
that  they  understood  what  they  read.  They  were  free 
to  hurry  as  much  as  they  could,  provided  they  grasped 
the  meaning.  The  highest  possible  rate  of  speed  con- 
sistent with  an  assimilation  of  the  subject  matter  was 
the  ideal  placed  before  each  pupil.  This  direction  had 
its  basis  in  the  conviction  that  such  a  procedure  would 
be  the  most  prompt  and  efficacious  in  breaking  up  the 
existing  slow,  plodding  habits  of  reading  and  in  estab- 
lishing in  their  stead  the  opposite  type  of  reading  habits. 

It  is  thought  that  the  above  statement  contains  the 
essentials  of  Type  I.  The  results  of  the  application  of 
this  method  will  be  presented  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V 

TYPE  II.    TRAINING  TO    DECREASE 
VOCALIZATION 

WHAT  is  the  nature  of  the  so-called  "inner  speech" 
of  silent  reading?  Is  it  always  present  in  such  read- 
ing? Why  is  there  such  a  process  as  vocalization  in 
silent  reading  at  all?  What  is  its  origin?  What  role 
does  it  play  in  the  gathering  of  thought  from  the 
printed  page?  Is  it  necessary  in  reading,  or  may  it 
be  eliminated,  or  at  least  abbreviated?  If  so,  how? 
While  these  questions  are  of  interest,  especially  to  the 
psychologist,  a  brief  treatment  of  them  here  will  enable 
the  general  reader  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  this 
factor  on  silent  reading,  and  to  understand  the  raison 
d'etre  of  this  second  type  of  Training  in  a  study  that 
aims  at  the  acceleration  of  the  reading  rate.  Many 
of  the  above  questions  cannot,  it  is  true,  be  answered 
as  yet  with  certainty;  but  recent  investigations  have 
served  to  throw  some  interesting  light  upon  this  rather 
strange  and  mysterious  accompaniment  of  silent  reading. 

DEFINITION 

Huey's  definition  of  inner  speech  in  silent  reading  as 
"a  combination  of  auditory  and  motor  elements,  with 

100 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       101 

one  or  the  other  predominating  according  to  the 
reader's  habitual  mode  of  imaging"  may  be  said  to 
reflect  fairly  well  the  general  view  of  students  who  have 
investigated  this  process.  In  other  words,  reading  is 
not  confined  to  the  visualization  of  the  printed  symbols. 
Concomitant  with  this  visualization  there  occur  move- 
ments, more  or  less  incipient  in  character,  of  the  tongue, 
lips,  vocal  chords,  larynx,  inner  palate,  throat,  and  the 
general  physiological  mechanism  that  functions  in  oral 
speech.  The  reader  goes  through  the  form  of  saying 
the  words  to  himself.  The  difference  between  the 
inner  speech  of  silent  reading  and  the  oral  speech  of 
conversation  is  thus  seen  to  be  one,  not  of  kind,  but  of 
degree  —  degree  of  movement  of  the  vocal  organs,  and 
degree  of  sound  produced. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  STUDY  OF  "INNER  SPEECH" 

While  this  habit  of  vocalization  in  silent  reading 
and  even  in  thinking  seems  to  have  been  always  with 
us,  its  existence  does  not  seem  to  have  been  consciously 
adverted  to  and  commented  upon  until  the  second  half 
of  the  last  century.  Ribot  (44)  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  the  first  to  have  called  attention  to  this  phenom- 
enon. Writing  in  the  Revue  Philosophique  in  1879, 
Ribot  observes  " L'homme  fait,  qui  lit  silencieusement, 
accompagner  chaque  perception  visuelle  d'un  mouve- 
ment  secret  d'articulation."1  This  observation  occurs 

1  "  In  silent  reading,  every  visual  perception  is  accompanied  by  a 
concealed  articulatory  movement." 


102  SILENT   READING 

as  an  obiter  dictum,  as  Ribot  was  primarily  interested  in 
demonstrating  the  general  importance  of  movement 
in  connection  with  psychical  processes.  The  case  of 
inner  speech  in  reading  is  cited  merely  as  a  specific 
illustration  of  the  general  law  of  psycho-physics,  by 
which  every  sensory  stimulus  terminates  in  a  motor 
reaction.  In  the  literature  in  English  the  first  clear 
reference  to  the  existence  of  this  habit  appears  to  be  the 
statement  of  Bain  (45)  in  1868  :  "A  suppressed  articu- 
lation is,  in  fact,  the  material  of  our  recollection,  the 
intellectual  manifestation,  the  idea  of  speech."  In  the 
statements  of  these  psychologists  one  can  see  the  fore- 
shadowing of  the  present  pragmatic  theory  of  con- 
sciousness, in  which  the  incipient  motor  tendencies  of 
the  type  just  mentioned  are  made  to  play  stellar  roles 
in  explaining  the  functioning  of  the  various  types  of 
thought  and  ideation. 

The  first  systematic  treatment  accorded  this  process 
seems  to  have  come  from  the  pens  of  the  French  psychol- 
ogists, Egger  (46)  and  Ballet  (47).  Relying  on  intro- 
spection, Egger  notes  the  constant  persistence  of  this 
inner  speech  in  both  his  thinking  and  reading.  The 
latter  he  thus  aptly  describes,  as  quoted  by  Pintner  (48)  : 
"Lire,  en  effet,  c'est  traduire  Tecriture  en  parole:"1 
and  of  thinking,  he  says,  "A  tout  instant,  1'ame  parle 
interieurement  sa  pensee."  Ballet  calls  attention  to 
the  additional  factor  of  audition  in  reading,  pointing 

1  "  To  read  is,  in  reality,  to  translate  writing  into  speech." 

2  "  In  every  instance,  a  person  expresses  his  thought  in  inner  speech." 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       103 

out  the  intimate  connection  between  the  articulation 
of  words  and  the  hearing  of  them.  Whether  or  not 
audition  always  follows  on  the  articulation  of  words, 
Ballet  does  not  state. 

Somewhat  more  positive  and  dogmatic  was  the  con- 
clusion reached  by  the  German  psychologist  Strieker 
(49)  that  it  was  impossible  to  have  an  idea  of  a  word 
without  experiencing  the  sensations  of  innervation 
arising  from  the  stimulation  of  the  articulately  muscles 
in  inner  speech.  For  example,  it  is  impossible  to  have 
an  idea  of  the  sound  of  the  letter  B  without  feeling  an 
incipient  muscular  movement  in  the  lips.  As  he  him- 
self expressed  it :  "Die  Vorstellung  des  Lautes  B  und 
des  Gefiihl  in  der  Lippen  sind  also  in  meinem  Bewusst- 
sein  unzertrennlich  assoziert.  .  .  .  Diese  Gefuhle 
sitzen  in  den  Muskeln."  Indeed,  not  only  are  sensa- 
tions of  movements  in  the  articulatory  muscles  in- 
separately  connected  with  the  letter  or  word,  but  the 
consciousness  of  these  muscular  movements  really  con- 
stitutes the  idea  of  the  word.  Since  Strieker  supple- 
mented the  results  of  his  own  introspection  by  ques- 
tioning a  hundred  other  observers,  and  finding  similar 
results,  his  conclusions  assumed  the  nature  of  general- 
izations of  a  rather  universal  character.  To  the  ques- 
tion then,  Is  inner  speech  necessary  in  silent  reading 
and  even  in  thinking  ?  Strieker  answers  unequivocably 
in  the  affirmative. 

1  "The  mental  image  of  the  sound  B  and  the  (corresponding")  sensation 
in  the  lips  are  inseparably  associated  in  my  consciousness.  .  .  .  These 
sensations  arise  from  the  muscles." 


104  SILENT    READING 

Stumpf,  Paulhan,  and  Baldwin  agree  with  Strieker 
that  abridged  articulately  movements  are  usually 
present ;  but  that  they  are  necessary,  or  even,  de  facto, 
always  present,  they  deny.  Pushing  Strieker's  theory 
concerning  the  necessity  of  articulatory  movements  to 
secure  the  idea  of  a  word  to  its  logical  conclusion,  that 
the  idea  of  a  tone  must  likewise  be  impossible  without 
the  corresponding  articulatory  movements,  Stumpf  (50) 
endeavors  to  refute  it  by  citing  his  own  ability  and  that 
of  other  musicians  to  recall  a  tone  without  movement 
of  the  articulatory  muscles.  "Ohne  lautes,  leises  oder 
stilles  Singen  kann  ich  verschiedene  Tone  vorstellen."1 
Paulhan  instances  his  ability  to  have  an  auditory  image 
of  one  vowel  while  pronouncing  a  different  one  aloud  — 
an  impossible  performance  according  to  Strieker's 
conclusion.  Paulhan  points  out  that  Strieker's  con- 
scious advertence  to  the  articulatory  movement  was 
probably  instrumental  in  causing  the  movement. 
While  previous  writers  had  called  attention  to  the  close 
connection  between  the  motor  and  the  auditory  ele- 
ments in  inner  speech,  but  had  given  no  definite  answer 
as  to  whether  the  one  could  exist  without  the  other, 
we  find  Paulhan  (51)  stating  that  the  auditory  may  be 
present  even  though  the  motor  be  lacking.  Whether 
the  motor  element  may  exist  without  arousing  the 
auditory,  Paulhan  does  not  decide.  Differing  some- 
what from  Egger,  he  maintains  that  thought  is  an  inner 

1  "  I  can  recall  different  tones  without  singing  loudly,  softly,  or 
silently." 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       105 

language  which  need  not  necessarily  be  converted  into 
words  or  verbal  imagery  —  "la  pens6e  est  un  langage, 
non  une  parole,  et,  si  la  representation  des  mots  lui 
est  utile,  elle  parait,  de  son  c6te,  faciliter  beaucoup 
cette  representation."  l 

In  general  consonance  with  the  conclusions  of 
Paulhan,  Baldwin  (52)  cites  his  ability  to  image  a  note 
while  in  the  very  act  of  uttering  another  vocal  sound  in 
a  different  pitch.  He  does  not  find  the  movement  of  the 
articulatory  muscles  a  necessary  condition  for  the 
imaging  of  the  word  —  the  latter  being  produced  even 
when  the  articulatory  muscles  are  held  rigidly  motion- 
less. Baldwin  states  that  when  his  attention  is  with- 
drawn from  the  larynx  and  directed  to  the  ear,  the 
movement  of  the  former  disappears.  In  view  of  the 
faint  vestigial  character  of  the  movement,  however,  the 
question  might  well  be  raised  here,  whether  the  move- 
ment really  disappeared,  or  whether  it  was  merely  not 
perceived  because  the  attention  was  withdrawn  from  it. 
In  the  writer's  judgment,  the  latter  is  only  too  probably 
the  case.  Bastian  (53)  and  Collins  (54)  oppose  the 
theory  of  Strieker  and  Bain  on  more  purely  anatomical 
evidence.  The  latter  instances  a  case  of  cortical  motor 
aphasia  in  which  articulatory  movement  was  entirely 
lacking  though  the  patient  was  nevertheless  able  to 
read. 

In  an  introspective  study  of  his  own  silent  thinking, 

1 "  Thought  is  a  language,  not  a  speech,  and  if  the  verbal  imagery  is 
useful,  the  idea  seems  in  its  turn  to  facilitate  greatly  the  appearance  in 
consciousness  of  such  imagery." 


106  SILENT   READING 

Dodge  (55)  found  inner  speech  was  clearly  present. 
Reproductions  of  movement  sensations  from  the  vari- 
ous organs  that  function  in  actual  speech  —  the  tongue, 
lips,  throat,  thorax,  —  seem  to  constitute  the  essen- 
tial elements  of  the  words.  An  interesting  distinction 
is  drawn  by  Dodge  between  the  sensations  coming 
from  the  actual  movements  of  the  organs  of  speech  and 
the  ideas  of  those  movements.  The  latter  Dodge 
maintains  are  indispensable;  the  former  are  not. 
Bawden  (56)  supports  this  conclusion,  also  maintaining 
that  kinsesthetic  or  motor  ideas  suffice  to  constitute 
the  meaning  of  words,  even  when  actual  articulation 
or  movement  of  the  muscles  is  absent. 

Thus  far  the  psychologists  had  relied  solely  upon 
introspection  to  detect  the  presenee  of  articulatory 
movement.  An  effort  was  made  by  Curtis  (57)  to  re- 
move this  matter  from  its  complete  dependence  upon 
the  subjective  factor  of  the  subject's  own  introspection 
and  place  it  upon  an  objective  basis.  Accordingly, 
he  placed  a  large  tambour  on  the  larynx  of  the  subject. 
A  record  of  the  movements  made  while  the  subject  was 
thinking  or  reading  silently  was  compared  with  the 
movements  made  when  the  subject  was  relaxed,  think- 
ing of  nothing  in  particular.  The  curves  of  the  former 
were  much  larger  than  those  of  the  latter.  Following 
this  same  mode  of  attack,  Courten  (58)  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Yale  employed  a  Rousselot  exploratory  bulb 
which  rested  upon  the  tongue,  and  was  connected  with 
a  Marey  tambour.  Since  the  tongue  is  one  of  the 


TRAINING  TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       107 

important  organs  called  into  play  by  articulation,  a 
record  of  the  movement  or  non-movement  of  the  tongue 
would  throw  some  light  on  the  question :  Does  a  sup- 
pressed vestigial  articulation  always  accompany  silent 
reading?  Courten  found  that  the  curve  of  movement 
varied  both  with  the  individual  and  with  the  degree  of 
concentration  in  thinking  and  in  reading.  In  every 
case,  however,  movement  of  some  sort  was  clearly 
recorded. 

From  the  above  mentioned  objective  findings  two 
inferences  would  seem  to  follow. 

1.  Too  much  weight  should  not  be  placed  upon  the 
report  of  a  subject  whose  introspection  is  unable  to 
detect  a  slight  movement  of  the  articulatory  muscles. 

2.  The  absence  of  articulatory  movement  in  some 
degree  or  other  does  not  seem  to  be  conclusively  demon- 
strated in  any  individual  case. 

While  the  articulatory  movements  that  occur  in 
thinking  and  in  silent  reading  are  usually  of  a  faint 
vestigial  character,  there  are  occasions  when  the  articu- 
lation becomes  very  pronounced.  Hansen  and  Leh- 
mann  (59)  have  shown  that  when  the  subject  is  thinking 
very  intently  of  some  name  or  number  an  unconscious 
whispering  usually  occurs.  Though  accompanied  by 
no  perceptible  movement  of  the  lips,  the  sound  can 
nevertheless  be  distinctly  heard  by  observers  when  the 
subject  is  placed  in  especially  favorable  acoustic  condi- 
tions. These  experimental  findings  of  Hansen  and 
Lehmann  offer  corroborative  experimental  evidence  to 


108  SILENT   READING 

the  observation  made  by  Egger,  in  1881,  that  there 
are  certain  mental  states  during  which  the  inner  speech 
is  especially  vigorous  despite  one's  best  efforts  to  check 
it  —  occasions  when  it  is  impossible  to  "faire  taire 
notre  pense'e." 

After  reviewing  the  literature  on  this  subject  rather 
exhaustively,  Pintner  concludes:  "The  general  result 
from  all  these  experiments  can  be  summed  up  by  saying 
that  silent  reading  is  accompanied  by  articulation  in 
some  degree  or  other.  This  activity  of  articulation  is, 
so  far  as  we  know,  a  universal  habit.  Whether  it  is  a 
necessary  habit  is  another  question." 

ORIGIN  OF  HABIT  OF  INNER  SPEECH 

Before  investigating  the  latter  question  it  would 
seem  advisable  to  consider :  What  is  the  origin  of  this 
habit  ?  The  answer  to  this  query  may  throw  some  light 
upon  the  former.  Is  articulation  in  silent  reading  the 
result  of  a  habit  of  associating  the  sound  of  words  with 
their  visual  appearance,  which  habit  has  been  acquired 
through  the  process  of  education  ?  Or  is  it  more  largely 
an  inherited  tendency  ?  To  this  question  Quantz  (26) 
gives  a  very  definite  answer : 

"  Lip  movement  in  silent  reading  is  not  an  acquired  habit, 
but  a  reflex  action,  the  physiological  tendency  to  which  is 
inherited.  It  is  not  'second  nature'  but  essentially  first 
nature ;  not  something  to  be  unlearned  but  to  be  outgrown. 
It  is  a  specific  manifestation  of  the  general  psycho-physical 
law  of  '  dynamogenesis '  by  which  every  mental  state  tends  to 
express  itself  in  muscular  movement." 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       109 

Among  the  considerations  which  Quantz  adduces  to 
support  the  above  statement  are  the  following : 

1.  "The  child  in  learning  to  read  does  not  learn  to  move 
his  lips.  The  lip-movement  is  most  decided  at  the  very 
beginning,  and  grows  less  so,  as  he  becomes  conscious  of  it 
and  controls  it  voluntarily.  In  learning  to  write,  also,  the 
child  moves  his  tongue  and  the  muscles  of  his  face ;  some- 
times even  his  feet  or  his  whole  body.  But  he  afterwards 
finds  that  this  expenditure  of  energy  is  unnecessary.  It  is 
brought  under  control  when  the  writing  itself  becomes 
partially  reflex,  leaving  the  higher  conscious  processes  more 
free  to  attend  to  the  inhibition  of  these  lower  useless  ones. 
The  same  act  is  then  performed  more  exactly,  more  quickly, 
and  with  less  exhaustion.  Similarly,  lip-movement  is  an 
unnecessary  expense  of  energy  —  not  only  useless  but  detri- 
mental. 

2.  "In  the  answers  to  the  'personal  sheet'  many  persons 
say  that  though  not  habitual  lip-movers  they  do  move  their 
lips  when  giving  very  close  attention,  or  when  reading  matter 
which  is  very  difficult,  absorbingly  interesting,  or  highly 
emotional.  This  means  simply  that  we  regularly  inhibit 
these  vocal  reflexes,  but  that  when  our  whole  attention  is 
given  to  the  thought  under  consideration  the  watchfulness 
over  these  motor  tendencies  is  relaxed,  and  they  find  expres- 
sion. We  tend  to  'think  aloud'  when  preoccupied  —  not 
only  lip-movement  but  actual  speech  is  unintentional.  It 
is  true  also  that  these  impulses  to  vocal  movement  are 
stronger,  and  hence  more  likely  to  find  an  outlet,  when  the 
corresponding  mental  processes  are  more  vivid.  This 
follows  from  the  general  principle,  experimentally  demon- 
strated by  Fe>6,  that  'the  energy  of  a  movement  is  propor- 
tional to  the  intensity  of  the  mental  representation  of  that 
movement.' 


110  SILENT   READING 

3.  "The  statement  that  lip-movement  is  'natural/  and 
reading  without  lip-movement  an  acquired  habit,  is  entirely 
in  accord  with  mental  laws.  The  development  of  mind  is  not 
only  in  handing  over  processes  once  conscious  to  the  control 
of  the  reflex  mechanism  —  as  in  walking  or  playing  a  familiar 
tune  on  the  piano  —  thus  leaving  consciousness  free  for  the 
acquisition  of  higher  powers  and  the  performance  of  tasks 
more  difficult;  but  the  interchange  is  also  in  the  opposite 
direction  —  originally  reflex  processes  are  frequently  brought 
under  the  control  of  the  higher  consciousness,  and  inhibited 
if  they  are  considered  useless  or  detrimental." 

The  explanation  of  Quantz  and  the  considerations  ad- 
vanced in  its  support  seem  to  possess  a  certain  amount 
of  plausibility.  On  the  general  psycho-physical  theory 
of  dynamogenesis,  one  would  naturally  be  led  to  expect 
some  form  of  motor  reaction  to  the  mental  processes 
involved  in  silent  reading.  The  question  might  be 
raised  here  why  this  reaction  should  always  take  the 
specific  form  of  movement  of  the  musculature  of  articu- 
lation. The  nexus  between  the  mental  processes  in- 
volved in  the  assimilation  of  thought  from  the  printed 
page  and  the  movement  of  the  larynx,  tongue,  vocal 
cords,  lips,  and  the  general  physiological  mechanism  of 
articulation  does  not  seem  to  be  per  se  an  obviously 
natural  or  necessary  one.  Why  does  not  the  motor 
reaction  take  some  other  form  of  outlet  —  the  move- 
ment of  musculature  other  than  the  articulatory  ? 
The  theory  of  dynamogenesis  might  explain  the 
presence  of  some  form  of  motor  reaction  to  the  mental 
processes  involved  in  the  interpretation  of  printed  sym- 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       111 

bols,  but  taken  by  itself,  it  does  not  seem  sufficient  to 
explain  why  the  reaction  should  always  take  the  form 
of  articulatory  movement. 

In  the  writer's  judgment,  it  would  seem  that  to  ex- 
plain this  latter  connection  between  the  interpretation 
of  printed  symbols  and  the  inner-vocalization  of  the 
symbols,  recourse  must  be  had  to  the  acquired  habits 
of  speech  and  oral  reading.  The  pronunciation  of  words 
is  learned  by  the  child  either  through  unconscious 
imitation,  or  through  express  formal  instruction.  In 
either  event  it  must  be  acquired  through  practice. 
Though  the  physiological  capacity  or  tendency  to  speech 
is  inherited,  the  actual  pronunciation  of  words  must 
be  learned.  Since  speech  is  acquired  before  reading, 
words  have  meaning  to  the  child  at  first  only  as  sounds. 
The  school  ties  on  to  these  sounds  certain  visual  sym- 
bols in  the  form  of  printed  letters  or  words.  The  latter 
gradually  become  enriched  with  meaning  through  their 
evoking  the  proper  sounds  which  arouse  the  corre- 
sponding meaning.  The  association  between  the  visual 
form  of  a  word  and  its  sound  is  stressed  by  the  school 
in  the  primary  grades  until  the  association  becomes 
very  intimate  and,  apparently,  inseparable.  Reading 
then  consists  of  the  stimulation  of  the  visual  imagery 
which  in  turn  arouses  the  auditory  and  articulatory 
elements,  whence  only  the  meaning  is  reached. 

The  point  made  here  is  that  the  association  of  the 
printed  word  with  its  corresponding  sound  and  articu- 
lation is  consciously  and  purposely  built  up  by  the  school. 


112  SILENT   READING 

The  synaptical  connections  between  the  visual,  the 
auditory,  and  the  articulatory  centers  in  the  nervous 
system  are  thus  made  closer  and  closer.  The  mental 
associations  and  the  synaptical  connections  are  not 
inherited,  however,  but  are  acquired  as  the  result  of 
practice  and  training  —  be  it  conscious  or  unconscious 
in  character. 

There  is  no  intrinsic  reason  why  the  visual  form  of 
words  must  necessarily  be  associated  with  their  sound 
in  order  to  convey  meaning.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of 
economy  of  effort.  Since  ordinarily  the  average  person 
deals  with  words  first  as  sounds,  and  continues  later 
to  use  them,  to  a  great  degree,  in  actual  speech,  the 
school  simply  capitalizes  the  stock  of  meanings 
already  attached  to  the  sounds  by  associating  the 
sound  of  words  with  their  visual  form.  It  would  still 
be  possible,  however,  to  link  the  meaning  of  words  to 
their  printed  form  through  the  direct  medium  of  the 
visual  imagery,  or  through  the  tactile  channel,  without 
employing  the  intercessory  assistance  of  the  auditory 
element.  In  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb  to  read  by 
the  manual  method,  this  appears  to  be  precisely  what 
is  done.  The  auditory  is  naturally  entirely  lacking, 
the  visual  imagery  together  with  the  kinsesthetic  being 
employed  to  convey  directly  the  meaning  of  the  visual 
symbols. 

Moreover  Quantz's  statement  that  "lip-movement 
is  *  natural'  and  reading  without  lip-movement  is  an 
acquired  habit,  is  entirely  in  accord  with  mental  laws" 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       113 

needs  to  be  examined  rather  carefully.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  the  musculature  of  the  lips  as  well  as  all 
the  other  muscles  of  the  body  is  gradually  called  into 
play  as  the  physical  organism  develops  from  infancy 
to  maturity.  But  the  movement  of  the  lips  and  other 
articulatory  organs  that  accompanies  silent  reading 
is  not  simply  movement  of  a  generic  character.  It  is 
the  definite  specific  form  of  movement  that  occurs  when 
the  words  that  are  being  read  are  actually  pronounced. 
As  Huey  well  observes,  "while  the  inner  speech  is  but 
an  abbreviated  and  reduced  form  of  the  speech  of  every- 
day life,  a  shadowy  copy  as  it  were,  it  nevertheless 
retains  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  original." 
Now,  while  it  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  movement  of 
the  lips  and  of  the  motor  organs  is  natural  as  the  or- 
ganism develops,  and  while  some  form  of  motor  reac- 
tion to  the  various  mental  processes  is  to  be  expected 
on  the  psycho-physical  theory  of  dynamogenesis,  the 
peculiar  specific  form  of  the  lip  and  other  articulatory 
movement  —  such  as  occurs  in  actual  speech  —  is 
still  left  unexplained. 

The  explanation  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  list  of 
inherited  tendencies  or  connate  reflexes,  but  in  the 
acquired  habits  of  the  individual.  The  mastery  of  the 
phonetic  properties  of  words,  and  their  correct  pronun- 
ciation —  requiring,  as  they  do,  particular  types  of  lip 
maneuvers,  the  careful  manipulation  of  the  tongue, 
and  other  delicate  and  "unnatural"  articulatory  move- 
ments —  have  not  alas  been  inherited,  but  are  the  re- 


114  SILENT   READING 

suit  of  conscious  training  and  much  practice,  as  every 
primary  teacher  realizes  only  too  painfully.  The  kind 
of  articulatory  movement  that  accompanies  silent 
reading  cannot  therefore  be  said  to  be  natural  in  the 
sense  that  it  has  not  been  learned  or  acquired.  It  has 
been  acquired.  But  the  constant  association  between 
the  visual  symbol  of  the  word  and  its  phonetic  proper- 
ties has  become  so  deeply  ingrained  in  the  synaptical 
fibers  of  the  neurones,  through  both  the  conscious 
linkage  of  these  two  by  the  school,  and  through  the 
constant  usage  of  a  word  in  both  its  visual  and  auditory 
form  in  daily  life,  that  the  sight  of  a  word  comes  to 
arouse  its  appropriate  sound  and  its  corresponding 
articulatory  movements.  Thus  inner  speech  becomes 
an  automatic  reflex  accompaniment  of  silent  reading. 
But  the  point  never  to  be  forgotten  is  that  it  has  been 
acquired  —  not  inherited  "  ready  made." 

Is  INNER  SPEECH  NECESSARY  IN  SILENT  READING? 

The  answer  to  this  question  is  really  implicit  in  the 
conclusion  reached  in  the  discussion  of  its  origin  ; 
namely,  that  it  is  an  acquired  habit,  not  an  inborn 
characteristic.  Consequently  it  would  seem  theoreti- 
cally possible  to  learn  at  the  start  to  read  through  the 
sole  medium  of  the  visual  imagery,  or  if  the  habit  of 
inner  speech  has  been  already  acquired,  to  inhibit 
the  habit.  By  inner  speech  is  here  meant  that  definite 
specific  type  of  suppressed  articulatory  movement 
which  is  similar  in  contour  and  general  outline  to  the 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       115 

larger  movements  of  the  gross  musculature  of  articu- 
lation which  functions  in  oral  speech.  The  mere 
unconscious  quiverings  of  an  organ  which  have  been 
detected  by  delicate  instruments  during  silent  reading, 
when  the  tongue,  lips,  etc.,  are  held,  for  all  practical 
purposes,  rigidly  motionless,  would  not  therefore  con- 
stitute inner  speech  as  the  term  is  used  in  this  para- 
graph. 

As  a  result  of  his  experiment  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  in  inhibiting  articulatory  movements  in  silent 
reading,  Pintner  (48)  draws  the  following  conclusions : 

1.  "  That  articulation  during  the  reading  process  is  a  habit 
which  is  not  necessary  for  that  process. 

2.  "That   practice  in  reading  without  articulation  can 
make  such  reading  as  good  as  the  ordinary  reading  of  the 
same  subject. 

3.  "That  practice  in  reading  without  articulation  tends 
to  aid  ordinary  reading,  most  probably  by  shortening  the 
habitual  practice  of  articulation." 

Similar  to  the  above  is  the  conclusion  reached  by 
Secor  (60)  after  his  experiment  on  this  subject  at 
Cornell,  namely  that  "articulation  and  audition"  are 
not  to  be  regarded  as  "absolutely  necessary  elements." 

The  conclusion  reached  by  Pintner  and  Secor  is  fur- 
ther confirmed  by  the  observation  of  W.  A.  Schmidt  (7) : 

"  It  is  quite  possible,  too,  that  if  training  in  oral  reading 
were  discontinued  at  an  early  stage,  and  training  in  rapid 
silent  reading  were  stressed,  the  tendencies  toward  inner 
speech  might  be  greatly  reduced  and  visualization  cultivated, 


116  SILENT   READING 

at  least  in  part.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  appear  to  have  the 
ability  to  take  in  all  kinds  of  situations  visually  without 
speech  accompaniments.  This  is  true  even  in  the  case  of  the 
interpretation  of  many  printed  symbols." 

MEANS  OF  INHIBITING  INNER  SPEECH 

From  the  conclusion  that  articulately  movements 
are  not  necessary  in  silent  reading  to  the  devising  of 
means  of  inhibiting  them  is  rather  a  far  cry.  Their 
inhibition  is  another  matter.  And  the  validity  of  the 
former  conclusion  does  not  depend  upon  the  successful 
execution  of  the  latter.  Various  devices  have  been 
employed  to  inhibit  articulation.  Secor  reports  that 
whistling  and  the  uttering  of  the  alphabet  aloud  "com- 
pletely removed  all  traces  of  articulatory  movement, 
so  far  as  the  possibility  of  discovering  this  by  introspec- 
tion is  concerned."  Though  the  saying  aloud  of  a  letter 
or  word  would  apparently  engage  the  musculature  of 
articulation  during  the  moment  of  actual  utterance, 
there  would  still  remain  the  possibility  of  inner  move- 
ment during  the  intervals  between  the  words  which 
would  be  likely  to  escape  introspection.  To  guard 
against  such  interstitial  movements,  the  subjects  were 
requested  to  read  while  prolonging  a  letter  as  much  as 
possible.  This  served  but  to  verify  the  results  of  the 
previous  introspection  —  that  no  movement  occurred. 
In  the  writer's  judgment,  however,  even  this  last 
method  does  not  necessarily  remove  the  possibility 
of  a  faint,  subtle,  vestigial  movement  of  some  of  the 


TRAINING  TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       117 

smaller  articulatory  muscles  which  are  obviously  not 
employed  in  the  simple  prolongation  of  a  letter. 

Pintner  had  his  subjects  count  aloud  the  series  13, 
14,  15,  16 ;  13,  14,  15,  16 ;  etc.,  while  reading  silently. 
The  pronunciation  of  these  numbers  requires  a  more 
elaborate  musculature  of  articulation  than  the  simple 
letters  of  the  alphabet  used  in  Secor's  experiment.  The 
introspection  of  Pintner's  two  subjects  reported  a  com- 
plete absence  of  articulatory  movement,  though  audi- 
tion still  remained  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  subjects. 
Incidentally  the  introspection  of  the  latter  observer 
casts  an  interesting  ray  of  light  upon  the  relationship 
between  the  motor  and  the  auditory  elements  hi  inner 
speech.  If  the  introspection  reflects  his  actual  mental 
experience,  it  shows  that  the  union  between  the  motor 
or  articulatory  element  and  the  auditory  is  not  nearly 
so  inseparable  as  many  writers  have  supposed.  It 
lends  no  corroboration  to  the  generalization  made  by 
Huey  (6) :  "The  fact  is  that  what  we  say  is  always 
heard  as  well,  and  there  comes  to  be  an  indissoluble 
union  of  the  auditory  and  motor  elements." 

As  a  result  of  this  phase  of  his  experiment,  Pintner 
concludes:  "I  think  we  are  justified  in  saying  that 
reading  without  articulation  can  take  place,  .  .  .  and 
that  practice  in  reading  without  articulation  increases 
the  ordinary  rate  of  reading,  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact 
that  after  such  practice  the  amount  of  articulation 
made  use  of  is  not  so  great  as  formerly." 

No  satisfactory  method  has  yet  been  devised  of  ex- 


118  SILENT   READING 

eluding  audition  in  silent  reading.  Secor  found  that 
the  playing  of  a  xylophone  near  the  observers  quite 
as  often  as  not  left  the  inner  hearing  undisturbed. 
Similarly,  loud  noises  seemed  ineffective  in  suppressing 
the  inner  auditory  accompaniment  in  the  silent  reading 
of  most  people. 

In  concluding  this  brief  discussion  of  the  history, 
origin,  and  nature  of  inner  speech,  it  is  only  fair 
to  say  that  when  due  allowance  has  been  made 
for  the  findings  of  all  the  investigations  on  this  subject, 
there  still  remains  too  much  speculation  and  too  few 
scientifically  established  facts;  too  much  conjecture 
and  too  little  certainty.  The  problem  of  inner  speech 
—  why  we  persist  in  vocalizing  in  silent  reading  —  is 
still  with  us,  shrouded  in  some  of  the  pristine  mystery 
which  it  presented  to  its  first  systematic  investigators 
-  Egger  and  Ballet. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  review  of  the  investigations  of 
inner  speech  has  served  to  show  at  least  the  significance 
and  importance  of  this  factor  in  silent  reading.  It 
will  give  the  reader  a  better  and  more  intelligent  in- 
sight into  Type  II  -  -  Training  to  Decrease  Vocaliza- 
tion. The  validity  of  this  method  does  not  depend, 
however,  upon  any  of  the  tentative  conclusions  as  to  its 
origin,  the  relationship  between  the  motor  and  auditory 
elements  previously  presented.  Neither  does  it  hinge 
upon  the  correctness  of  the  answer  to  the  theoretical 
question  :  Can  every  vestige  of  articulatory  movement 
be  inhibited  ?  Prescinding  from  such  theoretical  con- 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       119 

siderations,  this  method  endeavors  to  decrease  lip-move- 
ment and  that  form  of  articulation  which  notably  hin- 
ders speed  in  silent  reading.  Whether  or  not  a  slight 
vestigial  quivering  of  the  larynx,  barely  detectable  by 
a  tambour,  exercises  any  effect  upon  the  rate  is  a 
theoretical  question  which  does  not  concern  us  here. 
Certainly  its  effect,  at  most,  is  but  negligible.  But 
the  more  or  less  elaborate  movement  of  the  gross  mus- 
culature of  articulation,  the  tongue,  lips,  and  throat 
muscles,  has  a  very  pronounced  effect  upon  the  rate, 
as  every  investigation  of  this  subject  has  clearly  shown. 

A  summary  of  the  findings  on  this  point  showing  the 
retarding  influence  of  a  marked  habit  of  vocalization 
was  presented  in  Chapter  III.  It  was  this  evidence 
that  showed  the  advisability  of  decreasing  vocalization 
to  increase  speed,  and  was  thus  directly  responsi- 
ble for  the  formulation  of  this  type  of  training.  The 
evidence  presented  there  is  well  epitomized  in  the  con- 
clusion of  Huey  :  "  The  direct  linking  of  visual  form  to 
ideas,  cutting  out  of  the  circuit  the  somewhat  cumbrous 
and  doubtless  fatiguing  audito-motorizing  mechanism, 
would  seem  to  be  a  consummation  to  be  wished  for." 
Similar  in  effect  is  the  conclusion  of  Dearborn :  "The 
effect  of  articulating  is  to  decrease  ordinarily  the  span 
of  attention"  and  consequently  to  retard  the  rate  of 
reading. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  second  method, 
a  copy  of  which  was  sent  to  every  teacher  using  this 
method. 


120  SILENT   READING 

STATEMENT   OF 

TYPE  II.    TRAINING,   TO    DECREASE   VOCALIZA- 
TION IN  SILENT   READING 

Vocalization  may  show  itself  in  rather  extreme  form  by 
elaborate  lip-movement,  or  in  its  usual  form,  by  incipient 
movements  of  the  lips,  tongue,  pharynx,  vocal  cords,  and  the 
general  mechanism  of  the  throat.  The  reader  feels  or  hears 
himself  pronouncing  the  words.  This  constitutes  the  so- 
called  "inner  speech"  of  silent  reading.  Inner  speech  is 
present  in  some  form  in  the  reading  of  most  pupils. 

Inner  speech  has  the  effect  of  slowing  up  the  rate  of  read- 
ing, causing  the  individual  to  read  no  faster  than  he  can 
actually  pronounce  the  words  to  himself.  Hence,  perception 
must  wait  upon  pronunciation.  The  rate  of  reading,  in 
other  words,  is  made  dependent  upon  the  rate  of  inner 
speech.  If  this  process  of  vocalization  be  gradually  lessened 
and  finally  eliminated,  the  rate  of  silent  reading  may  be 
greatly  accelerated.  The  period  of  training  to  decrease 
vocalization  should  last  from  April  8  until  May  29.  It  should 
replace  the  regular  work  in  reading  and  no  other  classroom 
time  should  be  devoted  to  reading.  Thirty  minutes  per 
day  should  be  allowed  for  the  work.  The  method  should 
consist  essentially  of  alternate  reading  and  reproduction. 
The  reading  should  be  timed  and  the  place  in  the  selection 
reached  at  the  end  of  each  of  the  various  periods  should  be 
regularly  marked.  Since  the  time  element  enters  into  all  the 
work,  a  clock  should  be  placed  in  the  front  of  the  classroom 
so  that  it  can  be  seen  by  all  the  pupils.  Pupils  should  be 
kept  informed  of  their  speed  of  reading. 

Reproduction  should  consist  both  of  free  paraphrase  — 
orally  or  in  writing  —  and  of  answers  to  specific  questions 
based  on  the  text.  The  length  of  the  reading  period  and  of 
the  reproduction  period  should  vary  with  the  grade  of  the 


TRAINING  TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       121 

pupils  and  with  the  subject  matter.  In  general,  however, 
the  reproduction  should  not  occupy  more  than  one-quarter 
of  the  total  time  allowed  for  the  exercise. 

Only  interesting  material  should  be  selected.  It  should 
also  be  easily  within  the  understanding  of  the  pupils.  Since 
the  object  is  to  set  up  habits  of  rapid  reading,  emphasis  upon 
the  simplicity  of  the  selection  is  necessary. 

In  order  to  assist  the  pupils  in  covering  as  much  reading 
matter  as  possible,  a  definite  preparation  may  be  made, 
consisting :  (a)  of  thought  preparation,  or  (6)  of  word  prepa- 
ration, or  (c)  of  both.  The  thought  preparation  should 
consist  of  such  an  introduction  by  commentary  or  by  the 
question-answer  process  as  will  arouse  interest  and  enlist 
the  attention  of  the  pupils.  This  preparation  should  in  no 
case  be  long.  For  the  word  preparation  the  teacher  should 
select  such  words  as  in  her  judgment  would  be  familiar 
to  the  pupils,  and  should  present  them  briefly,  explaining 
their  meaning.  The  preparation  —  both  thought  and  word 
—  may  be  abridged  or  even  omitted  when  the  material  is 
such  as  to  give  no  difficulty.  In  no  case  should  the  prepara- 
tion occupy  more  than  five  minutes  of  the  30  assigned  to 
the  exercise. 

Each  pupil  should  keep  a  chart  of  his  daily  performance, 
and  a  complete  chart  of  the  daily  class  performance  should 
be  conspicuously  displayed  in  the  classroom. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  directions  to  pupils  given  by  each 
teacher  concerned  in  this  investigation  be  substantially  the 
same.  The  following  suggestions  are  offered,  indicating  the 
nature  of  the  directions  to  be  given  to  the  pupils.  Literal 
adherence  to  them  is  not  required.  Their  spirit,  however, 
should  be  maintained. 

Point  out  the  advantage  of  a  rapid  rate  of  reading.  Tell 
them  that  their  effort  to  read  rapidly  will  be  more  successful 
if  they  avoid  moving  their  lips  and  tongue  and  do  not  at- 


122  SILENT   READING 

tempt  to  pronounce  each  word  to  themselves.  For  it  is 
precisely  this  attempt  to  pronounce  each  word  which  slows 
up  the  rate  of  reading.  Articulation  of  words  in  silent  read- 
ing, therefore,  is  a  serious  hindrance  to  rapid  silent  reading, 
which  should  be  eliminated  in  the  interests  of  efficiency. 
Try  to  get  the  children  to  see  that  their  speed  and  efficiency 
in  silent  reading  will  depend  largely  upon  their  elimination 
of  inner  speech. 

Say  to  them  in  substance:  "Read  this  selection  as  fast 
as  you  can.  While  reading  do  not  move  your  lips  or  tongue. 
Do  not  pronounce  the  words  to  yourself,  as  that  will  cause 
you  to  read  more  slowly  than  you  otherwise  would.  I  want 

to  see  how  much  you  can  read  in 1  minutes.  But  do 

not  skip  anything,  as  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to  tell  me  about 
the  story  you  have  read.  Try  to  read  faster  to-day  than  you 
did  yesterday." 

See  that  the  pupils  have  a  pencil  at  hand  and  direct  them 
to  stop  reading  at  once  as  soon  as  you  say  "stop."  Direct 
them  then  to  mark  the  end  of  the  line  which  they  are  reading 
when  told  to  stop.  Pupils  may  now  reproduce  what  they 
have  read  as  indicated  above.  In  a  similar  manner,  reading 
and  reproduction  are  to  be  continued  until  the  end  of  the 
30  minutes  assigned.  Have  the  pupils  then  report  the  num- 
ber of  pages  and  lines  beyond  the  last  full  page  which  they 
read. 

As  part  of  your  preparation  for  the  exercise  you  will  be 
expected  to  know  the  average  number  of  words  per  line  in  the 
matter  which  is  being  read  and  the  number  of  lines  per  page 
(if  pages  are  broken  by  illustrations  or  for  other  reasons, 
special  account  of  these  pages  will  have  to  be  taken).  From 
the  pupils'  reports  as  to  pages  and  lines  read  each  day,  esti- 
mate the  number  of  words  read  that  day  and  divide  by  the 

1  Number  of  minutes  to  be  varied  by  the  teacher,  as  two  minutes  for 
one  reading  stretch,  three  minutes  for  another,  etc. 


TRAINING   TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       123 

total  number  of  minutes  used  in  reading.  This  will  give  the 
number  of  words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil.  Each  stu- 
dent should  figure  out  his  score,  and  should  immediately 
enter  it  upon  the  chart,  which  will  thus  serve  as  a  record  of 
the  pupil's  daily  progress  in  silent  reading.  The  teacher 
is  also  requested  to  keep  a  diary  in  which  she  will  daily 
record  notes  and  observations  concerning  the  progress  of  the 
experiment. 

On  May  1  and  May  28,  besides  the  record  of  the  aver- 
age number  of  words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil,  during 
the  total  reading  time,  a  record  of  the  average  number  of 
words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during  each  of  the  vari- 
ous reading  periods  constituting  the  total  time  devoted  to 
reading  on  each  of  the  above  mentioned  days  should  also 
be  kept. 

On  May  2  and  May  29,  the  pupils  should  be  tested  with 
the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Tests.  As  soon  as  possible  after 
the  last  Friday  in  May  a  copy  (or  the  originals)  of  the  indi- 
vidual charts,  the  class  chart,  and  a  record  of  results  and 
observations  should  be  mailed  to  the  Bureau  of  Educational 
Research,  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana,  Dlinois. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  method  employs  all  the 
auxiliary  devices,  the  time  control,  and  the  technique 
of  Type  I.  The  difference  lies  in  the  inclusion  in  the 
second  method  of  the  additional  factor  or  principle  - 
decreasing  the  vocalization.  The  two  principles,  prac- 
tice in  rapid  silent  reading  and  decrease  of  vocalization, 
are  both  fundamental  in  this  latter  Type.  The  stress 
is  now  placed  upon  the  lessening  of  the  inner  speech, 
though  emphasis  upon  rapid  reading  still  remains. 
In  order  to  determine  the  comparative  efficacy  of  these 


124  SILENT   READING 

two  factors  in  accelerating  the  rate,  it  was  originally 
planned  to  exclude  the  latter  principle  and  to  construct 
this  method  directly  upon  the  decreasing  of  the  vocali- 
zation as  the  sole  basic  principle.  Preliminary  investi- 
gation showed,  however,  that  the  effort  to  lessen  inner 
articulation  was  far  more  successful  when  the  individual 
not  only  consciously  endeavored  to  inhibit  such  move- 
ments but  also  read  rapidly  at  the  same  time.  The 
comfortable,  leisurely  rate  of  reading  to  which  the 
average  individual  is  accustomed  seems  particularly 
favorable  to  the  arousal  of  the  usual  articulatory 
movements. 

It  was  found  that  when  to  the  conscious  attempt  at 
inhibition  was  joined  rapid  reading,  the  decrease  of 
inner  articulation  was  effected  more  promptly  and  more 
thoroughly.  Apparently,  these  two  factors  are  so 
closely  interrelated  that  a  mutual  causal  relationship 
exists  between  them.  The  exclusion  of  rapid  reading 
from  the  training  to  decrease  vocalization  would  have 
deprived  the  latter  of  one  of  its  most  effective  aids. 
Accordingly,  the  basic  position  in  the  second  method  is 
shared  coordinately  by  these  two  principles,  which 
work  hand-in-hand.  The  coordinate  stress  thus  placed 
upon  rapid  reading  while  the  subject  is  trying  to  check 
the  articulatory  movement  is  one  of  the  important 
particulars  which  differentiates  this  type  of  training 
from  that  received  by  the  two  subjects  in  Gray's  experi- 
ment which  was  discussed  in  Chapter  III. 

It  will  still  be  possible,  moreover,  to  determine  to 


TRAINING  TO   DECREASE   VOCALIZATION       125 

some  extent  the  amount  of  influence  exerted  upon  the 
acceleration  of  the  rate  by  the  decrease  of  vocalization. 
Since  this  latter  factor  is  the  only  one  possessed  by  Type 
II  which  is  not  also  included  in  Type  I,  the  difference  in 
the  amount  of  gain  effected  by  these  two  Types  can  be 
largely  attributed  to  the  only  factor  not  common  to 
both  —  the  conscious  decrease  of  vocalization  in  silent 
reading. 


CHAPTER  VI 
TYPE  III.    TRAINING   IN  PERCEPTION 

THE  core  of  the  reading  complex  is  the  process  of 
perception.  The  movement  of  the  eyes  from  pause  to 
pause,  their  convergence  and  divergence  in  fixation, 
the  numerous  and  varied  play  of  the  neural-muscular 
mechanism  involved  in  the  ocular  adjustment  to  the 
printed  symbols,  are  all  subsidiary  to  the  main  process 
of  perception.  The  latter  constitutes  the  actual  seeing 
or  visualization  of  the  printed  words.  The  results  of 
numerous  investigations,  as  stated  in  the  earlier  chap- 
ters, have  shown  that  the  overwhelming  bulk  of  the 
reading  time,  in  fact  from  twelve-thirteenths  to  twenty- 
three  twenty-fourths,  is  consumed  by  the  fixation- 
pauses.  The  total  reading  time,  therefore,  may  be 
said  to  be  practically  the  number  of  the  pauses 
multiplied  by  their  average  duration.  But  the  number 
of  pauses  per  line  is  dependent  upon  the  size  of  the  per- 
ceptual span — the  wider  the  span  the  fewer  the  pauses, 
and  vice  versa.  Hence  a  ty*pe  of  training  that  is  to  effect 
any  appreciable  economy  in  the  reading  time  must,  in 
some  way  or  other,  influence  the  perceptual  process  that 
occurs  in  the  fixation-pause.  The  improvement  may  be 

126 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  127 

secured  either  by  widening  the  visual  span,  causing 
fewer  fixations,  or  by  accelerating  the  perceptual  process, 
thus  lessening  the  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses,  or 
by  a  combination  of  both  these  results. 

PERIPHERAL  VISION 

Upon  the  fixation-pause.,  during  which  all  vision  or 
perception  occurs,  has  been  focused  the  attention  of 
many  investigators.  The  perception  that  occurs 
therein  is  of  two  kinds,  foveal  and  peripheral.  The  area 
that  can  be  grasped  by  foveal  vision  in  any  one  fixa- 
tion is  relatively  small.  Only  about  five  letters  (61) 
will  be  "unequivocally  clear"  when  the  eyes  are  held 
quite  stationary.  The  adjoining  letters  will  not  be  so 
sharply  defined,  but  will  shade  off  gradually  into  a  hazy 
outline,  growing  fainter  and  fainter  as  they  recede 
from  the  foveal  area.  These  letters  are  grasped  only 
by  peripheral  vision.  The  area  of  peripheral  vision 
is  consequently  much  larger  than  that  of  clear  vision. 
The  number  and  duration  of  pauses  per  line  and  the 
speed  of  reading  hi  general  are  thus  seen  to  be  condi- 
tioned to  a  considerable  degree  by  the  effective  utiliza- 
tion of  extra-foveal  vision.  The  importance  of  this 
phase  of  the  reading  complex  seems  to  have  been 
rather  generally  overlooked.  Practically  no  conscious 
attempt  is  made  in  the  present  teaching  of  reading  in 
the  schools  to  develop  peripheral  vision  or  to  enlarge 
its  areas.  Reading  which  is  wholly  or  chiefly  dependent 
upon  foveal  vision  will  be  slow  and  halting,  marred 


128  SILENT   READING 

by  too  frequent  pauses,  which  inhibit  the  development 
of  a  regular  rhythmical  swing  of  the  eyes  in  traversing 
the  printed  line. 

Dodge  (61),  who  has  analyzed  the  functioning  of  the 
various  elements  in  the  reading  complex  with  marked 
acuteness,  thus  describes  the  work  of  extra-foveal 
vision  : 

"Sometimes  the  peripheral  vision  of  words,  when  they 
are  indistinctly  seen  in  the  hazy  part  of  a  line,  is  sufficient 
for  reading.  It  is  always  useful,  furnishing  an  important 
premonition  of  coming  words  and  phrases,  as  well  as  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  relation  of  the  immediately  fixated  symbols 
to  the  larger  groups  of  phrase  and  sentence.  Without  this 
premonition  of  coming  words  and  the  outlines  of  larger 
groups,  the  process  of  reading  would  be  slow  and  difficult. 

"In  normal  reading  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the 
word  forms,  indistinctly  seen  in  peripheral  vision,  begin  the 
reading  process  well  in  advance  of  direct  fixation  and  the 
consequent  clearing  up  of  the  letters. 

"It  is  this  premonition  of  coming  words  and  phrases, 
sentence  breaks,  and  paragraphs,  that  determines  the  posi- 
tion of  future  fixations,  and  reduces  the  duration  of  individual 
fixations  sometimes  to  pauses  one-quarter  the  normal  percep- 
tion time.  They  are  often  less  than  the  simple  reaction  time 
of  the  eye." 

Not  only  is  peripheral  vision  effective  in  decreasing 
the  number  and  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses  per  line 
and  consequently  accelerating  the  rate,  but  it  is  also 
instrumental  in  fostering  and  stimulating  meaning 
premonitions,  thereby  improving  comprehension  as 
well.  Hand  in  hand  with  the  reaching  out  of  percep- 


TRAINING   IN  PERCEPTION  129 

tion  beyond  the  immediate  field  of  clear  vision  seems 
to  go  the  reaching  ahead  of  the  assimilative  factor 
beyond  the  meaning  grasped  in  direct  fixation  to  those 
dimly  felt  in  the  extra-foveal  area.  Meaning  premoni- 
tions, made  more  numerous  and  more  vigorous  by  the 
functioning  of  a  wide  peripheral  vision,  play  an  important 
role  in  the  rapid  interpretation  of  the  printed  page. 
Just  as  extra-foveal  vision  frequently  suffices  for  the 
reading  of  a  word  without  the  agency  of  direct  fixation, 
so  meaning  premonitions  not  infrequently  carry  the 
reader  over  many  a  word  without  the  immediate  ap- 
prehension of  the  word  in  direct  fixation.  This  is 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  a  person  in  reading  a  selec- 
tion aloud  in  which  the  meaning  premonitions  stream 
thick  and  fast  into  his  consciousness  will  unwittingly 
substitute  a  synonym  for  the  word  actually  occurring 
in  the  passage. 

Concerning  the  importance  of  these  meaning  pre- 
monitions, Dodge  (61)  says : 

"Adequate  premonitions  are  as  conspicuously  lacking 
in  the  stumbling  reading  of  childhood  as  in  our  reading  of  a 
foreign  language.  Their  development  is  a  most  important 
part  of  the  training  in  rapid  reading.  The  very  rapid 
reader  who  makes  two  or  three  steps  in  a  line  can  see  no 
more  distinctly  than  the  plodder  with  ten.  His  main  ad- 
vantage is  in  the  way  he  grasps  what  he  sees  only  indistinctly 
in  the  extra-fixational  vision."  (Italics  inserted.) 

The  Type  of  Training  which  will  be  outlined  in  this 
chapter  has  aimed  to  develop  the  more  generous  utiliza- 


130  SILENT   READING 

tion  of  peripheral  vision,  and  of  its  mental  correlate  — 
meaning  premonitions.  The  direction  to  the  pupils 
in  the  exposure  exercises,  requesting  them  to  read  the 
sentence  "as  a  whole,"  allowing  time  sufficient  for 
but  a  single  fixation,  was  calculated  to  call  the  peripheral 
vision  into  play,  while  the  suggestion  to  look  up  oc- 
casionally and  tell  "  how  much  they  saw  ahead  "  and  how 
much  of  the  remaining  meaning  of  the  sentence  they 
could  give,  was  designed  to  develop  meaning  premoni- 
tions along  with  the  extra-foveal  vision. 

FOVEAL  VISION 

However  important  a  factor  peripheral  vision  may 
be  in  developing  rapid,  effective  reading,  direct  or 
f oveal  vision  still  constitutes  the  core  of  the  perceptual 
process  —  perception  per  se.  In  the  field  of  clear  vision 
it  is  not  a  matter  of  conjectural  interpretation  or  in- 
ferences from  previously  perceived  premises,  but  a 
matter  of  direct  fixation  and  immediate  apprehension. 
The  functioning  of  direct  fixation  hi  connection  with 
extra-foveal  vision,  Dodge  (61)  thus  describes  : 

"In  adult  reading  the  moment  of  actual  fixation  seems 
to  be  an  incident  somewhere  in  the  middle  of  the  reading 
process.  Coming  between  the  premonition  and  the  after 
echo,  its  effect  is  to  correct,  to  confirm,  and  to  intensify  the 
premonition.  Psychologically  its  function  is  selective  and 
definitive.  It  emphasizes  the  excitation  of  suitable  residua 
and  inhibits  the  misfits.  The  pedagogical  importance  of 
word  forms  is  clear.  It  is  possible  that  special  training  in 
peripheral  vision  would  be  worth  while,  but  it  is  equally 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION 


131 


evident  that  no  training  is  adequate  which  does  not  provide 
for  the  corrective  cooperation  of  direct  fixation." 

The  Type  of  Training  to  be  outlined  in  this  chapter 
aims  definitely  at  the  enlarging  of  the  perceptual  span 
functioning  in  reading.  The  work  in  exposure  exer- 
cises attacks  this  problem  directly.  It  endeavors  to 
widen  the  span  of  attention  so  as  to  grasp  three,  four, 
five,  six,  and  even  more  words  if  possible,  in  a  single 
fixation.  C.  T.  Gray  (19)  showed  that  a  marked 
increase  in  the  visual  span  resulted  in  the  case  of  two 
fourth  grade  subjects  after  training  in  perception  by 
means  of  tachistoscopic  exposures.  In  the  case  of  the 
two  sixth  grade  subjects,  however,  similar  short  ex- 
posure exercises  did  not  seem  to  effect  any  appreciable 
widening  of  the  perceptual  span  as  determined  by  the 
number  of  words  grasped  in  a  tachistoscopic  exposure. 
However,  an  examination  of  the  data  afforded  by  the 
photographic  record  of  the  eye-movements  in  the  read- 
ing of  one  of  the  two  subjects,  B.  R.,  taken  before  and 
after  the  training  in  perception,  yields  a  rather  striking 
result.  The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  record  as 
reported  by  Gray  (19). 

TABLE  VII.    EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORD  OP  B.  R.  BEFORE  AND  AFTER 

PRACTICE 


AVERAGE 

AVERAGE 

AVERAGE  No. 

No.  OF 

LENGTH  OF 

REGRESSIVE 

PAUSES 

PAUSES 

MOVEMENTS 

Before  practice    .     .     . 

15.5 

15.4 

4.5 

After  practice       .     .     . 

6.1 

12.6 

1.2 

After  3  months'  interval 

8.4 

1.2 

132  SILENT   READING 

An  examination  of  these  records  clearly  demonstrates 
a  striking  enlargement  of  the  perceptual  span  which 
functions  in  actual  reading.  This  is  evidenced  by  the 
reduction  in  the  average  number  of  pauses  per  line 
from  15.5  in  the  first  reading  to  6.1  in  the  reading  after 
the  practice  in  perception.  This  indicates  that  the 
size  of  the  perceptual  span  was  more  than  doubled,  since 
its  width  bears  an  inverse  proportion  to  the  number  of 
fixation-pauses  per  line.  Even  the  average  duration 
of  the  perceptual  process  in  the  fixation-pauses  was 
decreased  from  15.4  to  12.6,  showing  improvement  in 
this  phase  of  the  process  also.  A  notable  decrease  in 
the  average  number  of  regressive  movements  per  line 
is  likewise  noticeable.  B.  R/s  rate  of  reading  as  de- 
termined by  careful  tests  had  increased  from  1.0  word 
per  second  before  the  practice  to  5.0  words  per  second 
after  the  training  —  an  improvement  of  400  per  cent. 

Consequently  while  B.  R.'s  span  of  attention  showed 
no  notable  increase  in  grasping  numbers  of  words  ex- 
posed by  a  tachistoscope,  it  showed  a  striking  enlarge- 
ment in  reading  an  actual  context.  In  alluding  to  this 
point  in  Chapter  III,  the  writer  termed  the  latter  the 
relative  span  of  attention,  the  span  which  functions  in 
reading  a  context  material,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
absolute  span  which  functions  in  tachistoscopic  exposure 
work.  Exercises  of  this  latter  character  have  shown 
that  the  perceptual  span  which  they  call  into  play, 
grasping,  as  it  does,  five  and  six  words  in  a  single  fixa- 
tion, is  seldom  fully  utilized  in  ordinary  reading  where 


TRAINING  IN   PERCEPTION  133 

the  span  rarely  exceeds  two  or  three  words.  Conse- 
quently, while  the  absolute  span  of  perception  may 
show  no  increase  as  a  result  of  training  in  perception, 
the  relative  span  which  functions  in  ordinary  reading 
may  reveal  a  striking  increase,  as  in  the  present  instance. 
In  other  words,  the  perceptual  span  is  utilized  more 
effectively  in  reading.  The  point  made  here  is  that  this 
is  true  not  only  of  fourth-grade  subjects,  but  also  of 
older  subjects,  as  B.  R.'s  case  well  illustrates.  The 
eye-movement  records  of  B.  R.  certainly  lend  no  sup- 
port to  the  tentative  conclusion  of  Gray  that  training 
in  perception,  if  it  is  to  produce  results,  should  come 
before  the  fourth  grade.  For  the  perceptual  span  as 
it  functions,  not  in  the  grasping  of  isolated  words  or 
phrases,  but  as  it  is  used  in  the  reading  of  connected 
material,  is  the  important  factor.  That  this  latter  is 
susceptible  to  improvement  has  been  clearly  shown  by 
the  record  of  Gray's  subject,  B.  R. 

RELATION  OF  SPEED  OF  READING  TO  TYPES  OF  IMAGERY 

What  is  the  effect  of  the  different  types  of  mental 
imagery  upon  the  rate  of  reading?  In  other  words, 
Is  the  reading  rate  largely  conditioned  by  the  mode 
of  imaging  ?  If  so,  what  types  are  conducive  to  rapid- 
ity and  what  ones  tend  to  retard?  These  are  some 
of  the  interesting  questions  which  have  been  touched 
upon  in  recent  studies  in  the  psychology  of  reading. 

To  the  above  queries  W.  A.  Schmidt  (7)  gives  no  un- 
certain answer : 


134  SILENT    READING 

"Individuals  of  this  (visual)  type"  says  he,  "are  by  nature 
rapid  readers,  other  conditions  being  equal.  Their  speed  is 
not  due  to  scanning,  however,  for  they  have  no  occasion  to 
resort  to  this,  since  there  is  almost  no  limit  to  the  rate  of 
visualization.  The  motor  type,  on  the  other  hand,  tends  to 
represent  the  slowest  readers,  the  dependence  upon  the 
physiological  mechanism  being  in  this  case  quite  marked. 
The  auditory  type  ranks  between  the  two,  the  hearing  of 
the  words  being  in  this  case  often  quite  vestigial.  This 
type  appears  to  be  much  more  common  than  either  of  the 
other  two  types.  Most  of  the  evidence  which  the  writer  has 
been  able  to  gather  through  interviews  with  a  large  number 
of  individuals  seems  to  support  the  conclusion  that  the 
auditory-motor  type  of  reader  can  compete  with  the  visual 
only  when  he  is  able  to  resort  to  scanning.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  rapid  readers  fall  almost  exclusively  into 
these  two  classes  —  those  on  the  one  hand  who  are  good 
visualizers  and  those  on  the  other  hand  who  have  acquired 
the  ability  to  gather  meaning  from  the  printed  page  without 
definitely  reading  all  the  words  and  sentences." 

The  above  conclusion  of  Schmidt's  appears  to  the 
writer  to  possess  a  certain  amount  of  plausibility.  It 
seems  at  least  a  priori  logical  to  assume  that  reading 
which  involves  merely,  or  at  least  chiefly,  visualization, 
requires  less  functioning  of  the  physiological  mechanism 
than  the  auditory  or  motor  types  with  their  more  or  less 
elaborate  movement  of  the  musculature  of  articulation. 
Involving  a  less  elaborate  functioning,  visualization 
would  seem  to  be  a  more  direct  and  more  rapid  mode 
of  reading.  Schmidt  appears  to  go  rather  far,  however, 
in  maintaining  that "  good  readers  fall  almost  exclusively 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  135 

t 

into  two  classes"  -  good  visualizers  and  those  able  to 
scan ;  that  the  auditory  or  motor  readers  can  compete 
with  visualizers  only  when  they  resort  to  scanning. 

In  the  first  place,  the  data  which  throw  any  light 
upon  the  influence  of  the  various  types  of  imagery  upon 
the  reading  rate  are  exceedingly  meager.  The  scanty 
evidence  that  is  available,  however,  does  not  seem 
to  warrant  so  positive  a  statement  as  to  the  condition- 
ing, determining  influence  of  the  mode  of  imaging 
upon  reading  rate.  There  are  numerous  instances 
of  very  rapid  readers  who  are  decidedly  "auditaires" 
and  "motaires"  but  who  can  compete  very  suc- 
cessfully with  the  visuals  Moreover,  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  the  audition  may  be  of  the 
faint,  vestigial  psychical  character  involving,  accord- 
ing to  the  introspection  of  some  psychologists,  no 
movement  whatsoever  of  the  musculature  of  articula- 
tion. In  the  writer's  judgment,  it  is  in  the  latter  fac- 
tor —  the  elaborate  functioning  of  the  physiological 
mechanism  of  vocalization  —  that  the  retarding  in- 
fluence is  largely  to  be  located.  If  the  latter  be  elim- 
inated, a  high  rate  of  speed  may  be  reached  regardless 
of  the  type  of  imagery,  as  the  results  of  the  present  in- 
vestigation indicate. 

"  Most  of  the  evidence  which  the  writer  has  been  able 
to  gather  through  interviews"  is  mentioned  by  Schmidt 
as  the  data  l  from  which  he  generalizes  concerning  the 

1  After  the  above  had  been  written,  the  writer  received  a  communi- 
cation from  Dr.  Schmidt,  in  which  the  latter  mentions  Quantz's  experi- 
ment as  corroborative  of  his  generalization.  As  the  writer  had  already 


136  SILENT   READING 

I 

conditioning  influence  of  the  various  types  of  imagery 
upon  the  reading  rate.  A  grave  difficulty  which  con- 
fronted the  writer  in  his  endeavor  to  secure  data  on 
this  point  by  questioning  readers  as  to  their  mode  of 
imaging  and  their  reading  rate  was  their  inability  in 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  cases  to  determine  with 
anything  approaching  certainty  what  is  their  dominant 
type  of  imagery.  Nor  is  that  strange.  For,  practi- 
cally all  the  recent  investigations  (62-67)  of  imagery 
types  have  shown  that,  as  a  general  rule,  individuals 
employ  not  a  single,  constant  type,  but  many  types 
of  imagery.  Netschajeff  (68)  has  conclusively  demon- 
strated the  existence  of  such  combinations  of  imagery 
types,  for  example,  as  the  visual-motor,  and  the  audi- 
tory-visual-motor. Indeed,  even  in  a  single  type  of 
mental  work,  individuals  are  found  using  now  one,  now 
another  mode  of  imaging.  There  is  a  confusing  com- 
plexity of  modes  of  imaging  in  a  single  individual. 

In  view  of  this  fact  it  is  not  surprising  that  an  in- 
dividual when  interviewed  can  scarcely  state  offhand 
what  is  his  precise  type  of  imagery.  Even  when  sub- 
analyzed  the  results  of  Quantz's  experiment  in  this  chapter,  it  is  felt 
that  all  of  the  essential  data  upon  which  Dr.  Schmidt's  conclusion  rests 
have  been  considered.  Dr.  Schmidt  also  states  that  the  adults  whom 
he  interviewed  "were,  for  the  most  part,  individuals  who  had  studied 
psychology  rather  extensively.  In  consequence  they  were,  as  a  rule, 
able  to  attempt  (whether  they  succeeded  is  quite  another  question)  to 
classify  themselves  as  auditory,  motor,  or  visual  in  type."  In  the 
writer's  judgment,  the  attempt  to  classify  oneself  in  regard  to  imagery 
type,  without  using  any  psychological  test,  is  rather  precarious.  Dr. 
Schmidt  has  the  gratitude  of  the  writer  for  his  additional  information. 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  137 

jected  to  psychological  tests  in  the  laboratory,  the 
dominant  type  of  imagery  is  not  always  established  with 
certainty.  Indeed,  there  is  no  single,  psychological 
test  that  can  be  relied  upon  to  discover  with  certainty 
the  dominant  mode  of  imaging  in  the  case  of  a  "mixed" 
type.  It  is  in  the  latter  case,  moreover,  that  most 
individuals  are  found  to  belong. 

Meumann  (69)  epitomizes  the  results  of  his  own  ex- 
tensive investigations  and  those  of  other  investigators 
when  he  states :  "  Investigation  has  shown,  however, 
that  the  great  majority  of  people  belong  not  to  pure, 
but  to  mixed  or  balanced  ideational  types.  In  these 
cases,  we  have  a  compromise  between  ideational  type 
and  sense-modality."  Illustrating  the  complexity  of 
modes  of  imaging  in  a  single  individual,  he  says : 
"For  instance,  the  concrete  visual  type  of  ideation 
may  coexist  in  any  individual  with  verbal  ideation 
of  another  source,  —  with  vocal-motor  or  with  verbal 
auditory  imagery." 

Consequently  the  question  might  well  be  raised  as  to 
the  accuracy  and  the  general  value  to  be  attached  to 
information  derived  from  interviews  upon  a  question 
that  is  notoriously  difficult  to  answer,  even  when 
fortified  with  the  results  of  a  psychological  test,  to 
say  nothing  about  the  case  when  it  is  answered  off- 
hand without  such  a  basis  for  a  reply. 

The  only  express  attempt,  to  the  writer's  knowledge, 
to  attack  the  problem  of  the  influence  of  imagery  types 
upon  reading  rate  was  the  experiment  of  Quantz  (26) 


138  SILENT  READING 

at  Wisconsin.  Quantz  sought  to  determine  the  relative 
influence  of  the  visual  and  the  aural  bias  upon  the 
reading  rate  in  three  ways  : 

"  (1)  by  testing  the  visual  and  auditory  span ;  that  is,  the 
limit  of  power  to  repeat  correctly  words  read  or  heard  once ; 
(2)  by  detection  of  differences  between  two  variant  readings 
of  the  same  passage ;  (3)  by  the  ability  to  reproduce  the 
thoughts  of  two  selections,  one  of  which  was  read  to  the  sub- 
ject, the  other  read  silently  by  him,  at  the  same  time." 

Whether  any  of  these  three  tests  actually  determined 
the  dominant  type,  or  even  the  relative  strength  of  the 
visual  and  auditory  imagery  in  the  individual,  is  very 
doubtful.  Underlying  the  three  methods  employed  by 
Quantz  is  the  assumption  that  the  capacity  to  grasp 
and  remember  or  reproduce  words  presented  orally 
or  visually  constitutes  an  index  of  the  relative  strength 
of  the  auditory  or  visual  type  of  imagery.  That  words 
presented  orally  and  reproduced  in  the  same  manner 
do  not  necessarily  tap  solely  the  auditory  type  of 
imagery  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  there  is  always 
the  possibility  of  transforming  the  auditory  impression 
into  another  more  favored  type  of  imagery.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  possibility  of  transforming  the  visual 
impression  into  an  auditory  image.  The  existence  of 
such  a  substitute  mode  of  imaging,  a  "surrogate,"  or 
sort  of  vicarious  functioning  of  imagery  types,  which 
has  been  experimentally  demonstrated  by  Meumann, 
serves  to  render  the  fundamental  assumption  under- 
lying Quantz's  three  tests  very  doubtful,  and  the  con- 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  139 

elusions  based  upon  such  tests,  of  similar  questionable 
validity. 

Indeed,  Meumann  (69)  cites  as  an  illustration  of  a 
process  wherein  substitutive  imagery  may  be  employed, 
practically  the  same  task  as  Quantz 's  test  of  the  span  of 
prehension  —  "the  limit  of  power  to  repeat  correctly 
words  read  or  heard  once." 

"Let  us  take,"  says  Meumann,  "the  case  of  an  individual 
who  has  read  a  list  of  words  or  to  whom  such  a  list  has  been 
dictated,  with  a  view  to  having  them  reproduced  immediately 
in  vocal  form.  The  mixed  type  is  always  able  to  adapt  itself 
to  this  task.  ...  In  recalling  auditory  words  immediately 
after  hearing  them,  the  visualizer  may  employ  auditory 
images  chiefly,  but  may  make  a  secondary  use  of  the  visual 
imagery  into  which  he  has  transformed  the  auditory  material ; 
but  in  recalling  a  conversation  with  a  friend  after  a  long  inter- 
val, ...  he  has  recourse  chiefly  to  visual  images  of  expres- 
sions employed  by  his  friend  during  the  conversation.  The 
individual  who  belongs  to  a  pure  type,  on  the  other  hand, 
endeavors  in  immediate  retention  to  transform  into  his  own 
favored  imagery  the  sensory  impressions  which  he  receives." 

The  results  obtained  from  the  three  tests  applied 
by  Quantz  are  by  no  means  uniform.  The  evidence 
from  the  first  test  (span  of  prehension)  Quantz  con- 
strues to  indicate  "a  gradual  increase  in  the  rate  of 
reading  as  the  subject  moves  away  from  the  auditory 
type  and  toward  the  visual."  The  results  of  the  second 
test  (detection  of  differences)  are  just  the  reverse,  show- 
ing that  the  auditory  type  is  decidedly  more  conducive 
to  rapidity  in  reading  than  the  visual  type ;  while  the 


140  SILENT   READING 

third  test  (comparison  by  simultaneous  processes) 
seems  to  show  a  correlation  between  eye-mindedness 
and  rapid  reading.  The  conflicting  character  of  the 
results  obtained  tends  strongly  to  corroborate  the 
writer's  conclusion  that  not  one  of  Quantz's  three  tests 
is  really  capable  of  determining  whether  the  subject 
was  dominantly  of  the  visual  or  of  the  auditory  type. 
Not  having  determined  that  first  essential  fact  for  a 
comparison  of  the  relative  advantage  of  the  visual  or 
auditory  bias  upon  the  reading  rate,  conclusions  based 
upon  correlations  of  reading  rate  with  prehension  span 
or  similar  exercises  are  quite  lacking  in  validity.  But 
even  if  it  were  assumed  that  the  imagery  types  were 
established  with  precision,  a  conclusion  as  to  the  de- 
cided advantage  of  the  visual  over  the  auditory  would 
scarcely  be  warranted  in  view  of  the  conflicting  char- 
acter of  the  results  obtained. 

Thus  the  results  —  meager  and  conflicting  as  they 
are  —  of  the  only  direct  experimental  investigation  of 
this  problem  would  hardly  seem  to  support  so  positive 
a  conclusion  as  Schmidt's  that  "the  auditory-motor 
type  of  reader  can  compete  with  the  visual  only  when 
he  is  able  to  resort  to  scanning." 

Meumann  does  not  treat  specifically  of  the  effect 
of  the  imagery  types  upon  rate  of  reading,  but  he  does 
discuss  their  influence  upon  rate  of  associative  learning. 
In  this  connection,  he  states  that  "the  auditory-motor 
individual  always  seems  to  possess  a  less  reliable,  but 
a  more  rapid  memory"  than  the  individual  of  the  visual 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  141 

type.     The   auditory-motor   type   seems   to   function 
more  rapidly  in  associative  learning. 

To  the  question  then :  Is  the  visual  or  the  auditory 
bias  more  conducive  to  rapidity  in  reading,  no  positive, 
definite  answer,  in  the  writer's  judgment,  can  as  yet 
be  given.  The  paucity  of  experimental  evidence  on 
this  point  is  such  as  to  render  any  conclusion  but  ten- 
tative and  highly  conjectural.  The  conclusion  of 
Schmidt's  ranking  the  visual  type  as  the  most  advan- 
tageous, the  motor  type  the  least,  and  the  auditory 
as  intermediate,  while  theoretically  very  plausible, 
is  as  yet  without  sufficient  experimental  corroboration. 
But  the  meager  evidence  that  does  exist  warrants  no 
such  fatalistic  attitude  as  Schmidt's  concerning  the  all- 
powerful,  conditioning  influence  of  the  imagery  type 
upon  reading  rate.  Rapid  readers  have  been  found 
among  all  types  of  imagery.  In  the  present  study  the 
vast  increase  in  speed  reported  of  all  the  experimental 
pupils  in  certain  grades,  —  in  which  there  were  beyond 
doubt  different  types  of  imagery  —  indicates  that 
marked  improvement  in  rate  may  be  secured  regardless 
of  the  pupil's  mode  of  imaging. 

Training  in  Perception 

The  third  type  of  training  has  been  based  directly 
upon  the  findings  of  the  psychological  laboratory  as  to 
the  functioning  of  the  eyes  during  reading,  showing 
the  crucial  importance  of  developing  and  widening  the 
perceptual  span,  or  at  least  of  making  more  effective 


142  SILENT   READING 

use  of  it  in  reading,  of  decreasing  the  duration  of  the 
fixation-pauses,  and  of  cultivating  a  regular,  rhythmical 
swing  of  the  eyes  in  the  inter-fixation  movements. 
The  method  was  worked  out  carefully  in  its  entirety. 
It  was  found,  however,  that  none  of  the  present  types 
of  tachistoscope  could  be  used  satisfactorily  for  groups 
of  pupils.  In  class  exercises  the  word  or  phrase  exposed 
should  be  legible  equally  (or  approximately)  to  every 
pupil.  An  apparatus  which  would  expose  cards,  con- 
taining words  and  phrases  of  varying  length,  suitably 
to  a  whole  class,  for  intervals  ranging  from  about  one- 
twelfth  of  a  second  to  two  seconds,  and  which  would, 
moreover,  be  easily  manipulated  by  the  teacher  was 
found  necessary  if  the  work  was  to  be  done  with  the 
scientific  accuracy  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  this 
experiment. 

Such  an  instrument  could  not  be  devised  in  the  time 
at  the  writer's  disposal  before  the  launching  of  the  ex- 
periment on  the  scheduled  date.  C.  H.  Stoelting  of 
Chicago,  with  whom  the  plans  were  carefully  discussed, 
has  given  the  writer  the  assurance  that  an  instrument 
of  this  type  suitable  for  classroom  purposes  can  be 
devised.  Superintendent  Taylor  of  Oregon  has  also 
worked  out  plans  for  its  construction.  The  proper 
instrument  may  be  available  shortly.  Though  this 
type  of  training  was  not  actually  applied  in  the  present 
investigation  because  of  the  lack  of  proper  technical 
apparatus,  it  is  thought  that  the  presentation  of  an 
outline  of  the  method  may  be  worth  while.  This  would 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  143 

seem  to  be  so  in  view  of  the  probable  appearance  of  the 
necessary  mechanical  device  in  the  near  future  and  be- 
cause there  is  considerable  evidence  which  points  to  a 
method  of  this  kind  as  capable  of  greajbly  accelerating 
the  reading  rate.  It  is  the  hope  of  the  promoters  of 
this  experiment  to  submit  this  type  of  training  to  an 
actual  test  when  the  necessary  mechanical  facilities  are 
at  hand. 

STATEMENT   OF 

TYPE  III.    TRAINING  IN  RAPIDITY  OF  READING 
BY  MEANS  OF  PERCEPTION  CARDS 

The  cards  used  should  be  four  inches  wide  and  of  varying 
lengths  to  contain  words,  phrases,  or  sentences. 

The  use  of  these  cards  is  analogous  to  that  of  the  exposure 
of  material  in  laboratory  work  by  means  of  an  exposure  ap- 
paratus or  tachistoscope.  In  both  cases,  the  subject  is  re- 
quired to  perceive  the  material  exposed  in  as  short  a  time  as 
possible.  There  is  experimental  evidence  tending  to  show 
that  the  amount  of  verbal  material  which  a  person  can  per- 
ceive in  a  given  time  can  be  increased  —  in  other  words,  that 
perception  may  be  improved.  Probably  it  is  not  true  that 
perception  as  a  native  endowment  may  be  improved,  but  the 
method  of  using  the  native  endowment  —  i.e.  the  perform- 
ance, —  is  susceptible  of  extensive  improvement. 

The  rate  at  which  children  can  perceive  words,  phrases, 
and  sentences  has  a  rather  obvious  bearing  on  their  speed  of 
reading.  Reading  consists  of  a  successive  series  of  percep- 
tions. The  eye  does  not  move  regularly  along  the  printed 
line  but  jumps  from  one  point  to  another,  pausing  at  each 
point.  It  is  during  the  pause  that  perception  takes  place. 
In  a  very  real  sense,  therefore,  the  printed  line  consists  of  a 
series  of  flashes  or  exposures. 


144  SILENT   READING 

To  improve  the  rate  of  reading,  therefore,  we  need  to 
reduce  the  number  of  exposures  per  line  by  increasing  the 
amount  of  material  presented  at  each  exposure  and  to  shorten 
the  length  of  each  exposure.  This  suggests  that  we  may 
directly  attack  the  problem  of  increasing  the  speed  of  reading 
(a)  by  training  the  pupil  to  "see  more  at  a  glance,"  and 
(6)  by  training  him  to  see  the  material  more  quickly. 

Obviously,  we  cannot  control  either  the  amount  seen  at  a 
glance  or  the  time  of  the  exposure  by  using  the  printed  page. 
If,  however,  we  can  present,  by  means  of  perception  cards, 
portions  of  the  text  in  the  form  of  words,  phrases,  and  sen- 
tences, we  may  gradually  lengthen  the  amount  of  material 
on  the  cards  as  the  pupil's  ability  to  perceive  it  increases, 
and  we  may  also  reduce  the  time  during  which  it  is  placed 
in  view. 

This  is  the  fundamental  idea  in  the  method  we  are  now 
proposing. 

The  reading  period  should  be  30  minutes  long.  Half  the 
period  should  be  devoted  to  the  presentation  of  material  by 
means  of  the  perception  cards.  The  remainder  of  the  period 
should  be  devoted  to  reading  from  the  book  in  which,  as 
far  as  possible,  the  same  words,  phrases,  and  sentences  are 
met. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  period  the  attempt  should 
always  be  to  make  the  period  of  exposure  of  the  cards  as  short 
as  possible.  Day  by  day  the  length  of  the  material  should 
be  increased.  In  fact,  either  one  of  two  methods  may  be 
used  and  both  should  be  used  during  the  course  of  the  ex- 
periment: (a)  the  time  of  exposure  may  be  kept  constant 
and  the  length  of  the  material  may  be  increased;  (6)  the 
length  of  the  material  may  be  kept  constant  and  the  time  de- 
creased. 

In  order  to  obviate  as  far  as  possible  any  interference  with 
the  perceptive  processes  due  to  the  presence  of  unfamiliar 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  145 

words,  the  teacher  should  drill  on  single  words  which  she  has 
'reason  to  believe  are  unknown  to  a  number  of  the  children. 
These  words  may  be  placed  on  the  board  or  presented  in  the 
usual  manner. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  material  be  printed  on  the  percep- 
tion cards  rather  than  written.  For  this  purpose  a  stamping 
outfit  should  be  provided.  It  is  recognized  also  that  a  great 
deal  of  work  will  be  involved  in  preparation  for  the  class 
period.  The  promoters  of  the  experiment  are  willing  to 
cooperate  with  the  teachers  in  securing  help  for  this  work. 

The  second  part  of  the  period  should  be  devoted  to  a  con- 
scious attempt  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  secure  a  transfer 
of  the  perception  processes  from  the  cards  to  the  printed  page. 
When  a  phrase  or  sentence  is  encountered,  children  should 
be  told  that  the  phrase  or  sentence  is  to  be  "seen  all  together." 
Such  directions  as  "do  not  look  at  every  word,"  "see  it  as 
a  whole,"  "read  it  all  together,"  may  serve  to  carry  over 
from  the  work  with  the  cards  to  the  work  in  the  book 
something  of  the  same  attitude. 

This  method  should  continue  from  the  first  Monday  in 
April  to  the  last  Friday  in  May.  An  accurate  record  of  the 
progress  of  the  pupils  should  be  kept  so  that  the  increase  in 
perceptual  span  and  in  rapidity  of  perception  may  be  noted. 
A  simple  form  will  be  provided  for  this  purpose.  The 
teacher  is  also  requested  to  keep  a  diary  in  which  she  will 
daily  record  notes  and  observations  concerning  the  progress 
of  the  experiment. 

The  teacher  should  select  easy  reading  material  for  use 
during  this  experiment  in  order  that  the  difficulty  due  to 
unfamiliar  words  may  be  reduced.  In  all  the  reading  other 
than  that  done  in  the  half  hours  set  aside  for  the  experiment, 
the  teacher  should  seek  by  admonition,  encouragement,  and 
example  to  inculcate  the  idea  of  increasing  the  span  of  per- 
ception —  e.g.  reading  by  phrases  —  and  to  decrease  the  time 


146  SILENT    READING 

required  to  "look  at"  a  group  of  words.  An  interesting 
exercise  may  be  devised  in  which  pupils  may  be  requested  to 
glance  at  the  first  words  of  a  paragraph  and  immediately 
raise  their  eyes,  whereupon  they  may  tell  "how  much  they 
saw." 

The  following  suggestions  are  offered  indicating  the  nature 
of  the  directions  to  be  given  to  the  pupils.  Literal  adherence 
to  them  is  not  requested.  Point  out  the  advantage  of  a  rapid 
rate  of  reading.  Try  to  get  them  to  see  this  in  terms  of  an 
addition  to  their  own  interests  and  pleasure.  Say  to  them  in 
substance  :  "I  shall  show  you  some  cards  containing  words, 
phrases,  and  sentences.  They  will  be  shown  for  only  a  frac- 
tion of  a  second.  So  you  will  have  to  read  them  very  quickly, 
with  a  single  glance  of  the  eyes.  Try  to  read  all  that  is 
printed  on  each  card.  You  will  have  to  pay  very  close  at- 
tention when  I  show  you  the  card,  as  otherwise  you  will  not 
be  able  to  read  all  that  is  on  the  card.  This  practice  in  read- 
ing a  number  of  words  at  a  glance  will  help  you  to  read  more 
rapidly.  Try  to  do  better  than  you  did  yesterday." 

Spend  about  15  minutes  in  perception  card  training. 
After  each  exposure  ask  some  of  the  pupils  what  was  printed 
on  the  card.  Toward  the  end  of  the  training  in  perception, 
have  all  the  pupils  reproduce  in  writing  what  was  on  each  of 
the  five  last  cards  exposed.  The  percentage  of  words  cor- 
rectly reproduced  will  constitute  the  pupil's  score  in  percep- 
tion. State  the  total  number  of  words  exposed  on  the  five 
cards  and  it  will  then  be  easy  for  each  pupil  to  figure  out 
his  own  score.  Direct  each  pupil  to  enter  his  score  imme- 
diately upon  the  chart  that  each  pupil  will  keep  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

The  second  half  of  the  period  should  now  be  devoted  to 
rapid  silent  reading.  The  pupils  should  be  encouraged  to 
carry  over  the  habit  of  "seeing  many  words  at  a  glance" 
gained  by  their  training  in  perception,  into  the  actual  work 


TRAINING   IN   PERCEPTION  147 

of  silent  reading.  They  should  be  directed  to  "  run  their  eye 
across  a  line  of  words"  as  rapidly  as  they  can,  consistently 
of  course,  with  an  understanding  of  what  they  see.  Through- 
out this  reading  period  there  should  be  a  conscious  effort  to 
utilize  the  habit  acquired  through  training  in  perception,  by 
perceiving  several  words  at  each  fixation,  instead  of  but  a 
single  word.  This  should  result  in  an  increased  rate  of  speed 
in  silent  reading. 

Say  to  the  pupils  in  substance :  "  Read  this  selection  as 
fast  as  you  can.  I  want  to  see  how  much  you  can  read  in 

l  minutes.  Try  to  see  as  much  as  you  can  read  in  a  single 

glance,  running  your  eyes  rapidly  across  the  lines.  A  fast, 
regular,  rhythmical  movement  of  the  eyes  will  help  you  to 
read  rapidly.  But  remember  that  I  am  going  to  ask  you  to 
tell  me  about  the  matter  you  have  read,  so  do  not  skip  any- 
thing. Try  to  read  faster  to-day  than  you  did  yesterday." 

See  that  the  pupils  have  a  pencil  at  hand  and  direct  them 
to  stop  reading  at  once  as  soon  as  you  say  "stop."  Direct 
them  then  to  mark  the  end  of  the  line  which  they  are  reading 
when  told  to  stop.  Pupils  may  now  reproduce  what  they 
have  read.  Reproduction  should  consist  both  of  free  para- 
phrase —  orally,  or  in  writing  —  and  of  answers  to  specific 
questions  based  on  the  text.  The  length  of  the  reading  period 
and  of  the  reproduction  period  should  vary  with  the  grade  of 
the  pupils  and  with  the  subject  matter.  In  general,  however, 
the  reproduction  should  not  occupy  more  than  one-quarter 
of  the  total  time  allowed  for  the  exercise.  Reading  and 
reproduction  are  to  be  continued  till  the  end  of  the  15  min- 
utes assigned.  Have  the  pupils  then  report  the  number  of 
pages  and  lines  beyond  the  last  full  page  which  they  read. 

As  part  of  your  preparation  for  the  exercise  you  will  be 
expected  to  know  the  average  number  of  words  per  line  in  the 

1  Number  of  minutes,  say  two,  three,  or  four,  to  be  determined  by 
the  teacher. 


148  SILENT   READING 

matter  which  is  being  read  and  the  number  of  lines  per  page 
(if  pages  are  broken  by  illustrations  or  for  other  reasons, 
special  account  of  these  pages  will  have  to  be 'taken).  From 
the  pupils'  reports  as  to  pages  and  lines  read  on  this  and  sub- 
sequent assignments  for  the  day,  estimate  the  number  of 
words  read  that  day  and  divide  by  the  total  number  of  min- 
utes used  in  reading.  This  will  give  the  number  of  words 
read  per  minute  by  each  pupil.  Each  student  should  figure 
out  his  own  score  and  should  enter  it  immediately  on  the 
chart  on  which  he  has  already  written  his  perception  score. 
This  chart  will  thus  serve  as  a  record  of  the  pupil's  daily 
progress.  It  is  also  suggested  that  a  complete  chart  of  the 
daily  class  performance  might  be  conspicuously  displayed 
in  the  classroom. 

On  May  1  and  May  28,  besides  the  record  of  the  aver- 
age number  of  words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during 
the  total  reading  time,  a  record  of  the  average  number  of 
words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during  each  of  the  vari- 
ous reading  periods,  constituting  the  total  time  devoted  to 
reading  on  each  of  the  above  mentioned  days,  should  also  be 
kept. 

On  May  2  and  May  29,  the  pupils  should  be  tested  with 
the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Tests  Forms  II  and  III.  As  soon 
as  possible  after  the  last  Friday  in  May,  a  copy  (or  the  origi- 
nals) of  the  individual  charts,  the  class  chart,  and  a  record  of 
results  and  observations  should  be  mailed  to  the  Bureau  of 
Educational  Research,  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana,  Illinois. 


CHAPTER  VII 
STATEMENT  OF  PROCEDURE 

AFTER  having  devised  the  preceding  types  of  train- 
ing, the  next  step  was  to  apply  them  to  a  sufficiently 
large  number  of  pupils  in  the  different  grades  of  the 
elementary  school.  This  would  serve  to  test  the 
efficacy  of  the  factors  included  therein.  Although  these 
factors  had  been  selected  because  psychological  experi- 
mentation, pedagogical  investigations,  and  a  priori 
evidence  had  suggested  their  special  significance  in 
accelerating  the  reading  rate,  their  value  as  constituents 
of  an  organized  and  usable  method  of  training  to  in- 
crease speed  could  be  determined  only  by  subjecting 
these  methods  to  an  actual  test  under  ordinary  school- 
room conditions. 

Fortunately,  at  this  time  the  newly  established  Bureau 
of  Educational  Research  at  the  University  of  Illinois, 
as  one  phase  of  its  activities  in  stimulating  the  interest 
of  the  schools  of  the  state  in  the  scientific  study  of  edu- 
cation, had  secured  the  names  of  the  superintendents 
and  teachers  who  were  interested  in  the  problem  of 
reading.  From  this  number  and  from  others  who 
graciously  offered  to  participate  in  this  study,  the 
following  selection  was  made.  It  comprises  40  grades 
in  20  schools  located  in  nine  cities  in  Illinois. 

149 


150 


SILENT   READING 


ClTT 

SCHOOL 

GRADE 

TEACHER 

Bloomington,  111. 

St.  Mary's 

5 

Sister  Bernadine 

Bloomington, 

St.  Mary's 

6 

Sister  Mary 

Chicago,    .     .     . 

Goodrich 

4 

Clara  E.  Klass 

Chicago,     .     .     . 

Goodrich 

5 

Virginia  Lee 

Chicago,     .     .     . 

Hendricks 

5 

Rose  McComskey 

Chicago,     .     .     . 

Hendricks 

7 

Bridget  McElherne 

Chicago,     . 

Hendricks 

8 

Ida  M.  Stodder 

Chicago,     .     .     . 

Hendricks 

4 

Gertrude  Tighe 

Chicago,    .     .     . 

Hendricks 

5 

Ruth  Wimmer 

Chicago,    .     .     . 

Manierre 

8 

Margaret  Dougherty 

Chicago,    .     .     . 

Manierre 

5 

Mrs.  Nellie  Hahn 

LaSalle      .     .     . 

Lincoln 

7 

Mary  Y.  Duncan 

LaSalle,     .     .     . 

Lincoln 

4 

Margaret  Flanagan 

LaSalle,     .     .     . 

Jefferson 

7 

Elizabeth  Hanley 

LaSalle,     .     .     . 

Jefferson 

4 

Marcella  Mullin 

Oregon,      .     .     . 

Oregon 

7 

Elizabeth  Joiner 

Oregon,      .     .     . 

Oregon 

4 

Marion  Metzger 

Rushville,  .     .     . 

Webster 

6 

Minnie  B.  Thomas 

Rushville,  .     .     . 

Webster 

3 

Dena  Tutt 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Garfield 

3 

Minnie  Shinn 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Grant 

6 

Lulu  Leland 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Grant 

3 

Frances  C.  Linskey 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Grant 

8 

J.  E.  Mather 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Greeley 

6 

Rose  M.  Boyd 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Greeley 

7 

Gertrude  Scanlan 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Lincoln 

4 

Lalla  Roberts 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Plumb 

5 

Lillian  SeCora 

Streator,    .     .     . 

Sherman 

6 

Ruth  Kelley 

Argo,     .... 

Argo 

4 

Marie  McCarthy 

Argo,     .... 

Argo 

5 

Mary  L.  McGuire 

Sycamore,  .     .     . 

Central 

4 

Hazel  B.  Mason 

Sycamore,  .     .     . 

Central 

7 

Florence  Wolhensack 

Taylorville,    .     . 

East 

4 

Mrs.  Agnes  Abrams 

Taylorville,    .     . 

East 

7 

Leonora  Drennen 

Taylorville,    .     . 

Hewitt 

7 

Maude  Law 

Taylorville,    .     . 

Hewitt 

4 

Bessie  Leigh 

Taylorville,     .     . 

Oak  St. 

4 

Leona  Peek 

Taylorville,    .     . 

Oak  St. 

7 

Florence  Layzell 

Taylorville,    .     . 

West 

4 

Mrs.  Laura  Huff 

Taylorville,    .     . 

West 

7 

Mrs.  L.  P.  Anderson 

STATEMENT   OF  PROCEDURE  151 

Among  the  number  is  a  parochial  school,  St.  Mary's 
in  Bloomington ;  the  rest  are  public  schools.  The 
cities  are  fairly  well  scattered  throughout  the  state. 
They  range  from  the  metropolis  Chicago,  down  to  the 
smaller  cities  of  the  state,  such  as  Sycamore.  The 
constituency  of  these  20  different  schools  largely  re- 
flects the  cosmopolitan  character  of  our  school  popu- 
lation. The  pupils  of  the  Goodrich  School  in  Chicago 
are  almost  exclusively  of  Italian  parentage;  those  in 
the  Argo  School  are  dominantly  of  Polish  extraction. 
The  offspring  of  Bohemians,  Slavs,  Austrians,  and 
Hungarians  are  found  in  goodly  numbers  in  the 
Streator  schools  ;  while  children  of  native-born  Ameri- 
cans predominate  in  the  remaining  schools.  The 
subjects  of  this  experiment  were  drawn,  moreover,  from 
practically  every  social  strata  of  our  heterogeneous 
population.  This  wide  range  in  the  character  of  the 
subjects  would  seem  to  render  any  appreciable  gains 
in  reading  rate  all  the  more  interesting  and  significant. 
It  would  give  to  them  a  broader  basis,  and  would  illus- 
trate the  wide  applicability  of  the  methods  of  training 
to  different  types  of  subjects. 

The  training  was  extended  throughout  grades  three 
to  eight,  inclusive.  Since  reading  in  the  primary  grades 
is  so  largely  devoted  to  the  mastery  of  the  mechanics 
of  reading  —  the  distinguishing  of  the  different  letter- 
forms,  their  phonetic  properties  taken  singly  and  in 
various  combinations,  and  the  recognition  of  simple 
word-forms,  —  it  was  not  practicable  to  apply  the 


152  SILENT   READING 

methods  to  the  first  and  second  grades.  Indeed,  in 
the  writer's  judgment,  it  is  not  possible  to  devise  a 
type  of  training  which  is  suitable  alike  to  pupils  in  the 
>  first  grade  and  to  those  in  the  eighth.  The  former 
are  taken  up  almost  entirely  with  the  mechanics  of 
reading,  the  latter  have  passed  that  stage  completely. 
From  the  third  grade  on,  however,  the  method  is  appli- 
cable since  the  formation  of  habits  of  rapid  efficient 
silent  reading  becomes  in  these  grades  a  matter  of 
paramount  importance. 

LENGTH  OF  TRAINING 

The  total  period  of  training  extended  from  April  8, 
1919,  to  May  29,  1919  —  a  period  of  39  school  days. 
On  April  8,  May  2,  and  May  29,  the  reading  period  was 
devoted  to  the  administration  of  the  Courtis  Silent 
Reading  Tests.  This  left  36  school  days  in  which  the 
entire  reading  period  of  30  minutes  was  devoted  to  the 
types  of  training.  After  18  days  of  training,  Form  II 
of  the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Test  was  administered 
to  ascertain  how  much  improvement  in  speed  and  com- 
prehension was  effected  in  the  first  half  of  the  training 
period,  and  how  much  in  the  latter  half.  The  tests  were 
also  given  to  the  control  groups  at  the  same  time  in 
order  to  secure  a  check  for  each  half  of  the  training 
period.  In  many  of  the  schools,  the  period  of  39  school 
days  from  April  8  to  May  29  was  interrupted  by  an 
occasional  free  day,  or  vacation  periods  of  one  kind 
or  another.  In  every  such  case  the  date  set  for  the 


STATEMENT  OF  PROCEDURE        153 

administration  of  the  final  Courtis  Test  was  extended 
beyond  May  29,  so  that  the  uniform  number  of  reading 
periods  might  be  devoted  to  the  training. 

METHOD  OP  CONTROL 

In  order  to  determine  how  much  of  the  increase  in 
speed  and  comprehension  could  justly  be  attributed 
to  the  particular  type  of  training  which  the  pupils 
received  and  not  to  their  regular  school  work,  each  of 
the  40  classes  was  divided  into  two  groups,  approxi- 
mately equal  in  rate  of  reading.  The  obtaining  of  a 
group  whose  aggregate  ability  in  the  particular  activity 
that  is  being  investigated  is  approximately  equal 
to  the  aggregate  ability  of  the  experimental  group  is 
the  ordinary  method  of  "control"  in  experimentation 
of  this  character.  An  attempt  was  made  in  the  present 
investigation  to  secure  in  addition  a  more  refined  type 
of  control.  Besides  dividing  the  class  into  two  groups, 
the  sums  of  whose  aggregate  scores  were  approximately 
equal,  the  class  was  further  subdivided  into  pairs  of 
pupils  of  approximately  equal  speed  in  reading.  One 
member  of  each  of  the  pairs  was  placed  in  the  experi- 
mental group,  the  other  in  the  control  group.  This 
afforded  a  control  not  only  for  the  experimental  group 
as  a  whole,  but  also  for  each  individual  member  in  the 
group. 

The  advantages  of  the  method  of  individual  control 
are  unmistakable.  Chief  among  them  is  the  securing 
of  a  basis  of  comparison  which  rests  directly  and  inti- 


154  SILENT   READING 

mately  upon  the  detailed  specific  facts  rather  than  upon 
specious  statistical  group  totals  and  averages.  The 
equality  between  the  constituent  members  of  the  two 
groups  apparently  reflected  in  the  equality  of  the  group 
totals  is  oftentimes  more  apparent  than  real.  Though 
the  totals  of  two  groups  may  be  approximately  equal, 
the  individual  members  in  the  two  groups  may  not  be 
at  all  comparable. 

The  following  case  serves  to  illustrate  the  application 
of  this  point  in  connection  with  the  method  of  control 
in  the  present  study.  Before  receiving  instructions 
as  to  the  method  of  procedure,  a  principal  had  con- 
templated dividing  his  class  into  four  sections,  ranging 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  in  reading  rate.  The 
sum  of  the  scores  of  the  upper  and  lower  quartiles  would 
be  approximately  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  scores  of  the 
two  middle  sections.  The  former  were  intended  to 
serve  as  the  control  group  for  the  latter.  Though  the 
total  number  of  points  scored  by  each  group  would  be 
approximately  equal,  the  absolute  lack  of  equality  in  the 
scores  of  all  the  individual  members  of  the  experimental 
group  with  the  scores  of  the  individual  pupils  in  the 
control  group,  would  be  not  less  real.  Consequently, 
a  common  basis  of  comparison  between  the  individual 
members  of  the  two  groups  would  be  utterly  lacking. 
The  equality  between  the  individual  members  which 
the  group  totals  would  apparently  reflect  would  be 
a  statistical  fiction,  sine  fundamento  in  re. 

The  method  of  individual  control  serves,  moreover, 


STATEMENT   OF  PROCEDURE  155 

to  eliminate  the  vexing  question,  How  are  improve- 
ments in  different  levels  of  ability  to  be  compared  ?  — 
a  question  that  is  always  with  us  in  the  loose,  slipshod 
method  of  group  control.  Take  the  case  already  cited 
of  the  upper  and  lower  quartiles  serving  as  the  control 
group  for  the  experimental  section  consisting  of  the  two 
middle  quartiles.  The  members  of  the  lower  quartiles 
have  open  to  them  a  much  greater  room  for  possible 
improvement  before  reaching  either  the  standard  rates 
or  the  highest  physiological  limit,  than  say  the  pupils 
of  the  second  quartile.  Is  an  increase  of  50  words  per 
minute  in  speed  to  be  evaluated  no  more  highly  in  the 
latter  than  in  the  former  ?  If  it  should  receive  a  higher 
proportional  credit,  what  will  be  the  correct  propor- 
tion? These  are  some  of  the  questions  which,  though 
not  frequently  expressly  raised  by  investigators,  and 
less  frequently  answered,  are  nevertheless  always  im- 
plicit in  the  method  of  group  control. 

To  obviate  them  and  to  secure  a  more  refined  type 
of  checking  device  —  one  that  is  based  more  directly 
and  intimately  upon  the  detailed  facts  in  the  case  — 
the  method  of  individual  control  has  been  used  in  the 
present  investigation.  It  has  cost  much  in  the  way  of 
additional  pains,  time,  and  labor.  The  writer  be- 
lieves, however,  that  the  more  incisive  and  clear-cut 
basis  of  comparison  which  resulted  was  worth  the  price. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  circular  letter  sent  to 
all  schools  participating  will  show  the  method  em- 
ployed by  the  teachers  in  securing  both  the  group  and 


156 


SILENT   READING 


the  individual  control.  The  explicit  character  of  the 
directions  indicates  the  pains  taken  to  insure  uniformity 
of  procedure  in  this  important  phase  of  the  experiment. 

Directions  for  Division  of  Class 

"We  are  mailing  you  -  -  1  copies  of  the  Courtis  Silent 
Reading  Test.  Kindly  have  the  teachers  you  have  selected 
administer  these  tests  to  their  pupils  on  Friday,  April  4. 

"  On  the  basis  of  the  results  of  these  tests  have  them  divide 
each  of  the  above  mentioned  grades  into  two  groups  of 
approximately  equal  speed  in  silent  reading.  In  this  division 
only  the  score  in  speed  (or  words  read)  should  be  regarded. 
The  score  in  comprehension  (questions  answered)  should 
be  marked,  but  should  not  be  taken  into  consideration  in  the 
question  of  dividing  the  grade  into  two  groups.  These 
groups  should  be  built  up  as  follows : 

ILLUSTRATION  FOR  CLASS  OF  TWENTY 


GROUP  A 

GROUP  B 

Pair    1  

190 

188 

Pair   2  

185 

185 

Pair    3  

179 

180 

Pair   9  

68 

67 

Pair  10  

50 

55 

Total     

1452 

1449 

"  Rank  the  pupils  in  each  entire  class  on  the  basis  of  speed 
from  the  best  to  the  poorest.  Number  them  in  order,  be- 
ginning with  the  best  (1,  2,  3,  etc.),  assigning  them  a  rank. 
Put  all  the  odd  numbered  children  in  Group  A,  and  all  the 
even  numbered  children  in  Group  B.  You  will  then  have 
1  Number  inserted. 


STATEMENT  OF  PROCEDURE        157 

two  groups  of  approximately  the  same  scores.  Write  in  the 
scores  of  the  pupils.  The  tendency  will  be  for  the  scores  of 
Group  A  to  run  higher.  Now  make  minor  adjustments  by 
shifting  pupils  from  one  group  to  the  other  until  you  have 
(a)  pairs  of  pupils  of  as  nearly  the  same  score  as  possible, 
and  (6)  as  a  result,  the  total  group  scores  nearly  the  same. 

"  Group  A  will  be  called  the  Experimental  Group  and 
Group  B  the  Control  Group.  This  means  that  the  method 
of  instructions  set  forth  in  the  inclosed  directions  is  to  be 
followed  for  Group  A  only,  and  that  Group  B  is  to  be  taught 
in  the  usual  way.  If  there  is  an  odd  number  of  pupils  in  a 
class,  put  the  odd  pupil  in  Group  A. 

"  After  having  scored  the  papers  and  used  them  to  divide 
the  classes  into  two  groups,  kindly  send  the  papers  to  us 
for  purposes  of  diagnosis  and  further  study.  Also  kindly 
inclose  the  test  blanks  which  were  not  used.  Ship  by  ex- 
press collect. 

"  We  are  also  sending  you  a  sample  form  of  chart  for  the 
individual  pupil,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  sheets,  so  that 
each  pupil  can  make  his  own  individual  chart  under  the 
direction  of  the  teacher.  It  is  suggested  that  this  may  be 
done  in  a  drawing  or  arithmetic  period  on  Friday,  April  4. 
Actual  work  on  the  reading  project  should  begin  on  Tuesday, 
April  8.  The  testing  and  division  of  the  classes  into  two 
groups,  as  well  as  the  preparation  of  charts,  should  therefore 
be  finished  before  Tuesday,  April  8." 

In  the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Test,  the  results  of  the 
performance  are  divided  into  the  score  for  speed  and 
the  score  for  comprehension.  Unlike  the  Kansas 
Silent  Reading  Test,  there  is  no  compound  score  serving 
as  the  single  index  of  the  efficiency  of  the  combined 
qualities  of  speed  and  comprehension.  In  the  above 


158  SILENT  READING 

set  of  directions,  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  score  in 
speed,  and  not  the  score  in  comprehension,  constituted 
the  basis  for  the  division  of  the  class  into  groups  and 
pairs.  This  was  because  the  investigator,  being  pri- 
marily interested  in  the  development  of  speed,  was 
thereby  enabled  to  compare  the  progress  of  the  two 
groups  in  this  particular  phase  of  reading  more  satis- 
factorily than  if  either  the  score  for  comprehension 
or  the  score  for  the  combined  qualities  of  speed  and 
comprehension  were  used  as  the  basis  for  the  division. 

The  Individual  Chart 

Every  pupil  in  the  experimental  groups  was  re- 
quested to  keep  an  individual  chart.  Since  uniformity 
in  the  computation  of  the  chart  was  necessary  in  order 
that  the  graphs  of  the  pupils  in  the  different  grades 
might  be  readily  comparable,  a  set  of  directions  was 
sent  to  every  teacher  to  insure  uniformity  of  procedure 
on  the  part  of  the  pupils.  As  many  of  the  pupils  were 
in  the  third  and  fourth  grades,  and  had  had  no  previous 
experience  in  graphing,  it  was  found  necessary  to  make 
the  directions  very  explicit  and  detailed.  Besides  the 
following  set  of  directions,  a  sample  copy  of  the  indi- 
vidual chart  was  sent  to  each  teacher. 

DIRECTIONS  TO  TEACHERS  FOR  MAKING  INDIVIDUAL 

CHARTS 

On  Friday,  April  4,  have  each  child  make  a  blank  form  like 
the  sample  submitted.  On  account  of  the  capacity  of  the 


STATEMENT    OF    PROCEDURE  159 

sheet,  the  diagram  is  arranged  so  as  to  record  the  number  of 
words  per  half-minute. 

Observe  that  the  dates  during  which  the  special  instruction 
takes  place  are  arranged  from  left  to  right  along  the  base  line 
and  that  the  speed  in  words  per  half -minute  is  expressed  along 
the  vertical  line.  The  idea  is  this :  If  a  child  reads  on  a 
given  day  at  an  average  speed  of  220  words  per  minute, 
divide  220  by  2,  giving  110  as  the  average  number  of  words 
per  half-minute.  Suppose  that  this  record  was  made  by  the 
pupil  in  question  on  April  8.  Have  the  pupil  put  a  dot  above 
the  date  and  at  110.  He  will  make  no  other  entry  on  that 
day.  Suppose,  however,  that  on  the  next  day  (April  9)  he 
reads  at  the  rate  of  240  words  per  minute,  or  120  words  per 
half-minute.  He  will  then  put  a  dot  over  April  9  and  oppo- 
site 120,  at  the  same  time  drawing  a  line  between  the  dot  he 
entered  the  day  before  and  the  one  he  has  just  entered. 

On  subsequent  days  he  will  record  his  speed  in  the  same 
way,  each  time  putting  a  dot  over  the  date  and  opposite  the 
number  of  words  he  read  per  half-minute,  and  drawing  a  line 
to  connect  this  dot  with  the  last  one  he  has  made.  If  the 
average  number  of  words  per  half-minute  for  a  given  child 
on  a  certain  day  lies  between  two  numbers  written  at  the  left 
side  of  the  diagram,  let  him  estimate  how  high  to  place  the 
dot.  Suppose,  for  example,  that  he  has  read  268  words  per 
minute,  or  134  words  per  half -minute.  The  dot  will  then  be 
not  quite  halfway  up  from  130  to  140. 

It  has  been  found  not  only  that  children  rather  readily 
understand  the  making  of  such  a  chart  but  that  they  enjoy 
watching  their  curves  grow.  Of  course,  the  interest  lies 
in  seeing  the  extent  to  which  the  slopes  upward  indicate 
improvement. 

If  there  is  a  break  in  the  record  —  due,  for  example,  to  the 
absence  of  a  child  —  the  dot  should  be  entered  above  the  date 
of  the  day  when  the  record  is  resumed,  and  a  line  should  be 


160  SILENT   READING 

drawn  from  the  last  dot  to  the  one  just  made.  This  line 
will  cross  over  the  intervening  day  or  days,  and  to  indicate 
that  a  break  has  occurred,  the  line  should  be  dotted. 

Observe  that  two  school  days  are  omitted  along  the  base 
line,  namely,  May  2  and  May  29.  These  are  the  days  on 
which  you  are  requested  to  test  your  pupils  with  the  Courtis 
Silent  Reading  Tests.  You  will  not  be  expected  to  conduct  a 
reading  recitation  in  either  Group  A  or  Group  B  on  those  days. 

It  is  suggested  that  added  interest  may  be  given  to  the 
work  if  you  have  a  class  chart  on  which  you  will  enter  the 
average  speeds  of  reading  for  the  class  in  precisely  the  same 
way  that  the  children  will  enter  their  individual  results.  If 
you  have  sufficient  blackboard  space,  a  chart  may  be  drawn 
on  the  board.  A  large  sheet  of  mounting  paper  will,  however, 
be  fully  as  satisfactory. 

Reading  Conference 

Despite  the  pains  taken  to  formulate  directions  that 
would  guide  the  teachers  in  every  important  step  in  the 
procedure,  it  was  recognized  that  differences  in  the 
application  of  the  method  by  the  various  teachers  might 
still  result.  These  differences  might  mar  or  at  least 
weaken  the  accuracy  of  the  conclusions  that  would  be 
drawn  from  the  study.  If  the  teachers  could  witness 
the  concrete  application  of  the  method,  and  the  mode 
of  computation,  besides  having  ari  opportunity  to 
present  orally  any  difficulties  which  occurred  to  them, 
and  have  them  cleared  away,  a  greater  guarantee  for 
uniformity  of  procedure  would  be  secured.  Accord- 
ingly, a  representative  of  each  school  system1  partici- 

1  There  was  no  delegate  from  Bloomington.  The  writer  went  there 
personally  to  explain  the  method,  its  application,  etc.,  to  the  teachers. 


STATEMENT   OF   PROCEDURE 


161 


pating  in  the  experiment  was  invited  to  attend  a  con- 
ference at  the  University  of  Illinois,  where  the  method 
was  demonstrated  and  explained  in  detail. 

The  conference  lasted  an  entire  day.  In  order  that 
all  the  teachers  might  benefit  from  the  conference,  a 
stenographic  report  of  the  demonstration  class  and  of 
the  discussions  by  the  delegates  and  the  promoters  of 
the  experiment  was  sent  to  every  teacher.  This  served 
to  supplement  the  report  which  each  delegate  brought 
back  to  her  colleagues.  The  following  extracts  from 
the  circularized  report  of  the  conference  will  convey 
some  idea  as  to  the  nature  of  the  meeting  and  the  points 
discussed. 

"On  Saturday,  April  12,  representatives  of  the  various 
school  systems  engaged  in  the  Silent  Reading  Project  as- 
sembled for  a  conference  at  the  University  of  Illinois.  The 
following  is  the  list  of  those  present : 

Mr.  D.  E.  McCraken 
Mr.  F.  R.  Nichols 
Miss  Clara  F.  Klass 
Miss  M.  D.  Wheaton. 
Mr.  C.  B.  Smith 
Mr.  D.  L.  O'Sullivan 
Mr.  F.  G.  Taylor 
Miss  Mary  T.  Duncan 
Miss  F.  C.  Lenskey 
Miss  Rose  M.  Boyd 
Miss  Maude  Law 
Miss  Hazel  B.  Mason 

"  Miss  Davis  brought  her  fifth-grade  class  from  the  Lincoln 
School,  Champaign,  and  demonstrated  the  method  of  train- 
ing the  pupils  in  rapid  silent  reading.  The  total  time  allowed 


Principal 

Manierre  School 

Chicago 

Principal 

Hendricks  School 

Chicago 

Teacher  4 

Goodrich  School 

Chicago 

Teacher  3 

Goodrich  School 

Chicago 

Superintendent 

Rushville 

Principal 

Argo 

Superintendent 

Oregon 

Principal 

LaSalle 

Teacher  3 

Grant  School 

Streator 

Teacher  6 

Greeley  School 

Streator 

Teacher  7 

Hewitt  School 

Taylorville 

Teacher  4 

Central  School 

Sycamore 

162  SILENT   READING 

for  the  period  was  30  minutes.  The  teacher  secured  seven 
reading  stretches  consisting  of  3, 4,  2, 4, 3,  3, 3  minute  periods, 
making  a  total  of  22  minutes  spent  in  actual  reading.  The 
instructions,  questions,  and  answers  on  the  matter  read 
occupied  only  eight  minutes." 

There  was  considerable  discussion  by  the  delegates 
as  to  the  method  of  procedure  in  computing  the  aver- 
age number  of  words  per  minute  and  of  graphing. 
The  following  extracts  from  the  conference  report  will 
serve  as  a  resum6  of  the  chief  points  discussed  and  of 
the  conclusions  finally  agreed  upon. 

"1.  There  was  a  discussion  as  to  the  expediency  of  com- 
puting the  number  of  words  read  per  minute  from  only  one 
of  the  reading  stretches  of  say,  two  or  three  minutes'  dura- 
tion, or  of  computing  the  average  number  of  words  read  per 
minute  from  the  sum  total  of  all  the  reading  stretches  during 
the  30-minute  period.  The  representatives  decided  to 
adopt  the  latter  method.  Consequently,  if  there  have  been 
eight  reading  stretches  of  two  and  three  minutes'  duration, 
so  that,  say,  the  sum  of  20  minutes  was  spent  in  actual  read- 
ing, it  would  mean  that  the  total  number  of  words  read,  say 
5000,  is  to  be  divided  by  20,  giving  250  as  the  average  num- 
ber of  words  read  per  minute. 

"2.  The  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  teacher  should 
take  down  the  number  of  the  page  reached  by  the  pupil 
after  each  reading  stretch  or  merely  at  the  end  of  the  total 
reading  time  was  discussed  at  length.  It  was  agreed  to 
leave  that  point  to  the  discretion  of  each  teacher  —  which- 
ever method  she  found  the  more  effective  she  should  be  free 
to  adopt.  Miss  Davis  reported  that  after  trying  it  both 
ways,  she  preferred  to  take  the  number  of  the  page  reached 
by  each  pupil  only  at  the  end  of  the  period,  as  this  allowed 


STATEMENT   OF   PROCEDURE  163 

more  time  to  be  spent  in  actual  reading  than  was  possible 
under  the  other  method. 

"3.  In  making  the  class  chart,  the  delegates  decided  to 
use  the  median  rather  than  the  average.  The  median  is 
simply  the  score  of  the  pupil  middlemost  in  the  order  of  rank. 
In  a  class  of  21  pupils,  the  score  of  the  llth  pupil  would  con- 
stitute the  median  for  the  class.  If  there  are  an  even  number 
of  pupils,  the  median  is  the  score  midway  between  the  scores 
of  the  two  middle  pupils.  In  a  class  of  20,  therefore,  the  sum 
of  the  scores  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  pupils  when  divided 
by  2  gives  the  median. 

"4.  Suitable  reading  material  for  the  different  grades  was 
discussed.  It  is  important  that  the  material  chosen  be  not 
too  difficult  for  the  grade.  Easy  material  is  to  be  preferred 
to  make  possible  the  setting  up  of  habits  of  rapid  eye- 
movements." 

Inasmuch  as  the  pupils  in  the  experimental  groups 
were  covering  two,  three,  four  times  the  usual 
amount  of  reading  matter,  the  problem  of  supplying 
them  with  sufficient  suitable  material  soon  became  a 
pressing  one.  The  reading  material  that  was  on  hand 
for  the  particular  grade  was  exhausted  by  the  experi- 
mental pupils  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks'  practice. 
A  list  of  selections  suitable  for  the  different  grades  was 
submitted  by  the  delegates.  This  list  was  incorporated 
into  the  Report  of  the  Reading  Conference.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  Mr.  James  F.  Hosic  of  the  Chicago  Normal 
School  kindly  selected  a  list  of  books  especially  suit- 
able for  the  purposes  of  the  experiment  from  a  much 
larger  number  which  he  had  prepared  for  use  in  certain 
Chicago  schools  designated  for  the  time  as  "English 


164  SILENT   READING 

centers."  A  copy  of  this  list  was  also  sent  to  each 
teacher.  Both  of  these  lists  will  be  found  in  the  ap- 
pendix to  this  study. 

The  Work  Curve  for  One  Reading  Period 

The  reading  period  is  divided  into  five,  six,  or  seven 
stretches  of  two,  three,  and  occasionally  of  four  min- 
utes' duration.  The  method  of  computation  which  the 
teachers  decided  to  adopt  secures  the  average  number 
of  words  read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  during  the  total 
reading  period.  It  does  not  determine,  however,  the 
average  number  of  words  read  per  minute  during  each 
of  the  reading  stretches.  It  left  unanswered  the 
questions  :  In  which  of  the  stretches  do  the  pupils  ob- 
tain the  highest  speed?  Does  the  intensive  nature  of 
the  work  cause  a  marked  decline  towards  the  end  of  the 
period  ?  Does  the  curve  for  this  type  of  activity  bear 
much  similarity  to  the  work  curve  described  by  Offner 
(70),  Rivers  and  Kraepelin  (71),  and  others  ?  To  throw 
some  light  upon  these  interesting  queries,  a  number  of 
teachers  in  different  grades  were  requested  to  secure 
a  record  of  the  average  number  of  words  read  by  each 
pupil  during  each  of  the  various  stretches  on  a  particu- 
lar day. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  experiment,  the  test  papers, 
the  individual  graph,  the  class  charts,  teachers'  notes 
and  observations  were  sent  to  the  writer.  A  care- 
ful examination  of  the  scoring  of  the  Courtis  Tests, 
especially  in  computing  the  index  of  comprehension, 


STATEMENT  OF  PROCEDURE         165 

revealed  too  large  a  percentage  of  error.  Most  of  the 
computation  of  the  scores  had  been  done  by  the  pupils, 
as  Courtis  suggests.  For  the  sake  of  accuracy,  all  of 
the  Courtis  tests,  including  the  three  forms  I,  II,  and  III, 
were  reexamined  and  rescored  by  trained  clerks  under 
the  writer's  supervision.  The  tremendous  amount  of 
labor  involved  in  recorrecting  approximately  4000  test 
papers,  determining  the  score  in  speed  per  minute  for 
each  one,  computing  the  index  of  comprehension,  mak- 
ing the  necessary  readjustments  in  the  matching  of 
the  pairs  of  pupils,  has  been  chiefly  responsible  for  pre- 
venting the  publication  of  this  investigation  at  an 
earlier  date. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
STATEMENT  OF   RESULTS 

THE  chief  instrument  used  in  this  investigation  to 
measure  the  growth  in  speed  of  reading  was  the  Courtis 
Silent  Reading  Test  No.  2.  There  are  three  different 
forms  of  this  test,  each  of  which  is  approximately 
equal  in  difficulty.  The  triplicate  character  of  the  test 
made  it  possible  to  test  the  pupils  at  the  beginning, 
middle,  and  end  of  the  training  with  the  same  kind  of 
measuring  device,  and  yet  avoid  the  complicating 
factor  of  special  familiarity  with  the  specific  subject 
matter  of  the  test.  The  uniform  character  of  the  three 
forms  of  the  test  likewise  renders  feasible  the  compari- 
son of  the  scores  made  in  the  beginning  with  the  scr>res 
made  at  the  middle  and  at  the  end  of  the  training. 
The  employment  of  different  standardized  tests  on  the 
two  latter  occasions  would  have  destroyed  this  uni- 
formity in  the  character  of  the  measuring  device  and 
would  have  rendered  such  comparison  hazardous. 

Another  advantage  arising  from  the  selection  of  the 
Courtis  test  is  that  its  division  into  two  parts  —  a 
measurement  of  rate  and  a  measurement  of  compre- 
hension —  enables  the  investigator  to  ascertain  the 

166 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  167 

speed  of  a  pupil's  reading  as  distinct  from  his  com- 
prehension. It  disentangles  these  two  factors  and 
weighs  them  separately. 

The  Courtis  Test  is  not,  however,  without  its  short- 
comings. While  it  is  helpful  to  know  the  score  of  the 
two  factors  —  speed  and  comprehension  —  separately, 
it  is  not  less  helpful  to  know  the  score  for  these  two 
factors  when  functioning  conjointly  on  the  same  pas- 
sage. This  the  Courtis  Test  through  its  score  of  rate 
and  index  of  comprehension  does  not  determine.  At 
the  time  the  score  for  rate  of  reading  is  determined, 
there  is  no  measure  taken  of  the  comprehension  that 
accompanied  such  reading.  Herein  lies  the  chief  weak- 
ness of  the  Courtis  Test. 

By  supplementing  the  index  of  comprehension  - 
which  reflects  only  the  proportion  of  the  correct  to  the 
incorrect  answers,  independently  of  the  absolute  num- 
ber attempted  —  by  the  number  of  correct  answers, 
this  difficulty  is  in  a  large  measure  obviated.  For  the 
number  of  correct  answers  reflects  not  only  the  ability 
to  comprehend  the  matter  but  the  speed  with  which  the 
pupil  reads  and  comprehends. 

According  to  the  method  of  computing  the  index  of 
comprehension  as  stated  by  Courtis,  a  pupil  who  at- 
tempts only  five  questions  in  the  five  minutes  allowed 
and  answers  them  correctly  secures  a  mark  of  100  per 
cent  in  comprehension.  So  likewise  does  the  pupil 
who  attempts  60  questions  and  answers  them  all  cor- 
rectly receive  a  mark  of  100  per  cent.  Yet  it  is  obvious 


168  SILENT   READING 

that  there  is  a  great  difference  in  the  performance  of  the 
two  pupils  —  the  latter  is  much  superior.  This  differ- 
ence is  not  reflected  in  Courtis' Index  of  Comprehension. 
Accordingly,  in  this  investigation,  the  number  of  ques- 
tions correctly  answered  was  used  as  a  score  of  the 
pupil's  comprehension  to  supplement  Courtis'  Index, 
and  to  express  actual  differences  in  the  performances 
of  the  pupils  —  differences  in  levels  of  achievement. 
This  device  enables  one  to  determine  whether  the  train- 
ing was  effective  in  increasing  the  rate  of  reading  when 
the  comprehension  is  employed  conjointly  and  is  being 
tested  simultaneously.  In  fact,  in  many  respects  the 
number  of  questions  correctly  answered  is  a  better 
measure  of  the  efficiency  of  comprehension  on  the  part 
of  the  reader  than  the  index  as  devised  by  Courtis. 

Standardized  tests  are  all  open  to  the  criticism  that 
they  test  but  one  performance  of  the  subject.  The 
performance  of  the  pupil  on  the  particular  day  on  which 
he  was  tested  may  have  been  normal  or  it  may  not 
have  been.  Due  to  any  one  of  a  thousand  causes  which 
affect  the  variability  of  the  functioning  of  a  human 
personality,  the  subject  may  not  have  been  true  to 
form  on  that  particular  occasion ;  he  may  not  have 
been  able  to  display  his  highest  ability.  In  other  words, 
the  test  gives  but  one  sampling  of  a  variable  function- 
ing. Whether  that  particular  sampling  really  repre- 
sents the  pupil's  ability  is  a  matter  which  can  be  deter- 
mined only  by  repeated  testing. 

In  the  present  investigation  the  attempt  has  been 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  169 

made  to  obtain  a  picture  of  the  pupil's  daily  growth  in 
speed  of  reading  by  securing  a  record  of  his  daily 
performance  for  a  period  of  two  school  months.  This 
was  accomplished  by  means  of  the  individual  chart, 
which  showed  the  average  number  of  words  read,  per 
minute  by  each  pupil  on  each  of  the  36  days  of  the 
training  period.  It  represents  the  results  of  36  measure- 
ments of  rate.  As  such,  it  has  the  advantage  of  a 
certain  degree  of  reliability  which  accrues  from  re- 
peated testing.  The  disturbing  factors  of  variability 
are  practically  equalized  in  such  a  large  number  of 
measurements. 

While  the  individual  graph  has  the  advantage  of  a 
much  larger  number  of  measurements  over  the  stand- 
ardized test,  it  is  inferior  to  the  latter  in  the  un- 
standardized  character  of  the  subject  matter  on  which 
the  record  was  made.  The  individual  chart  represents 
rates  of  speed  in  reading  the  ordinary  type  of  material 
which  is  found  in  the  graded  readers.  In  the  majority 
of  cases  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  matter  is  fairly  well 
adapted  to  the  reading  capacity  of  the  pupils.  But 
it  is  not  uniform  for  all  the  pupils.  One  fourth  grade, 
for  example,  uses  one  reader,  another  fourth  grade  uses 
a  different  one.  This  is  true  for  almost  all  the  grades. 
While  all  the  reading  books  for  one  grade  may  be  on  the 
same  general  level,  there  are  doubtless  minor  differ- 
ences in  degree  of  difficulty  which  make  the  record 
secured  on  one  book  not  strictly  comparable  with  the 
records  secured  on  another  reading  book.  In  the 


170  SILENT   READING 

Courtis  Silent  Reading  Test,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
subject  matter  is  absolutely  uniform  for  all  the  pupils. 

By  using  a  fairly  large  number  of  different  graded 
readers,  as  the  pupils  did  in  this  experiment,  the  scores 
may  be  said  to  represent  the  rates  on  the  average  type 
of  reading  material  for  the  particular  grade.  It  is 
true  that  in  any  one  class  the  average  rate  of  speed 
would  fluctuate  somewhat  on  account  of  differences  in 
degree  of  difficulty  in  different  selections  in  the  same 
reader,  and  also  on  account  of  changing  readers.  The 
large  amount  of  material  which  the  training  required 
to  be  read  made  the  using  of  many  readers  inevitable. 
In  some  instances  the  class  charts  give  the  names  of 
the  reading  selections  which  were  employed  on  the 
days  in  which  the  class  averages  in  rate  were  made. 
This  serves  as  a  sort  of  check  on  the  rate.  It  explains, 
in  a  number  of  cases,  considerable  variations  which 
appear  in  the  class  average  from  day  to  day. 

Changes  in  the  degree  of  difficulty  of  different 
reading  selections  are  somewhat  of  a  disturbing  factor 
in  measuring  the  gradual  growth  in  speed  for  a  single 
class.  They  are  much  less  of  a  disturbing  factor,  how- 
ever, when  the  average  represents  not  the  mean  of  a 
single  class  but  the  central  tendency  of  a  fairly  large 
number  of  classes.  In  other  words,  increases  and  de- 
creases hi  degree  of  difficulty  of  selections  tend,  in  a 
general  way,  to  equalize  each  other  when  the  average 
reflects  the  performance  made  on  a  large  number  of 
different  selections.  An  illustration  of  this  point  may 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  171 

be  readily  had  by  comparing  the  curve  of  progress, 
let  us  say,  of  a  single  fourth-grade  class,  with  the  curve  of 
progress  of  all  the  fourth-grade  classes,  as  shown  in  the 
composite  Graph  XII.  The  latter  is  seen  to  be  much 
smoother  and  more  regular  in  its  progress. 

EFFECT  OF  THE  TRAINING  UPON  THE  RATE  AND  COM- 
PREHENSION AS  DETERMINED  BY  THE  COURTIS 
TESTS 

1.    Third-Grade  Pupils 

Table  VIII  shows  a  rather  remarkable  gain  in  rate 
for  the  experimental  pupils  in  two  third-grade  classes. 
From  an  average  rate  of  152.1  words  per  minute  at  the 
beginning  of  the  experiment,  the  average  rises  to  239.5 
words  after  one  month  of  the  experimental  training. 
At  the  end  of  the  two  months  of  training  the  high 
average  of  258.6  words  per  minute  is  reached.  The 
average  rate  of  the  "control"  pupils  advances  from 
137  words  per  minute  to  183.8  after  a  month  of  the 
conventional  work  in  reading.  In  the  course  of  the 
next  month  the  rate  has  advanced  but  six  words  per 
minute,  reaching  a  final  average  rate  of  189. 8  per  minute. 
The  average  gain  of  the  experimental  pupils  in  rate  is 
more  than  twice  the  average  gain  of  the  "control" 
group  —  106.5  words  per  minute  as  contrasted  with 
52.7  words  per  minute. 

What  was  the  effect  of  this  acceleration  of  the  read- 
ing pace  upon  the  comprehension  ?  Beginning  with  an 
average  index  of  comprehension  of  76.4  per  cent,  the 


172 


SILENT    READING 


TABLE  VIII.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  TRAINING  IN  RAPID  SILENT  READING  WITH  THE  RESULTS  OF 
THE  CONVENTIONAL  WORK  IN  READING 

Total  Number  of  Classes  2  GRADE  III  Total  Number  of  Pupils  32 

M 

fe 

I 

1 

. 

i 

o 

S^sS 

To  illustrate  the  reading  of  this  table,  the  fourth  line  showing  the  averages  is  read  thus  :  The  rate  of  the  experi- 
mental (A)  pupils  of  the  two  schools  in  the  first  Courtis  Test  at  the  beginning  of  the  training  is  152.1  words  per 
minute  ;  their  comprehension  is  76.4%^  The  rate  for  the  control  (B)  pupils  is  137.1  words  pe?  minute,  their  com- 
prehension is  75.7%.  On  the  second  Courtis  Test  given  after  one  month  of  training,  the  rate  for  the  experimental 
pupils  is  239.5  words,  their  comprehension  78.6%  ;  the  rate  for  control  pupils  is  183.8,  their  compreSonTl% 
Throughout  this  study,  A  is  used  to  designate  the  experimental  pupils  ;  B,  the  control  pupils. 

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STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  173 

score  of  the  experimental  pupils  rises  to  78.6  per  cent 
after  one  month's  training.  At  the  end  of  the  second 
month,  it  has  mounted  to  82.8  per  cent  —  a  gain  of  6.4 
per  cent.  The  increase  in  rate  has,  therefore,  been 
accompanied  by  an  increase  in  comprehension.  The 
"control"  pupils  began  with  an  average  index  of  75.7 
per  cent  and  at  the  end  of  two  months'  conventional 
work  in  reading  had  dropped  to  74.6  per  cent  —  a 
decrease  of  1.1  per  cent.  Consequently,  the  final 
average  gain  of  the  experimental  pupils  over  the  con- 
trol group  is  53.8  words  per  minute  in  rate  and  7.5 
per  cent  in  comprehension. 

A  clearer  understanding  of  the  way  in  which  records 
were  assembled  and  compared  perhaps  requires  that  I 
should  again  refer  to  the  system  of  pairing.  It  is  to 
be  understood  that  the  32  children  constituting  the  two 
third-grade  classes  were  arranged  in  sixteen  pairs, 
each  pair  consisting  of  an  "A"  pupil  and  a  "B"  pupil. 
The  sixteen  "A"  pupils  taken  together  constituted  the 
"A"  group,  and  the  sixteen  "B"  pupils  taken  together 
constituted  the  "B"  group.  The  "A"  group  was 
taught  by  the  experimental  method,  the  "B"  group  by 
the  usual  method.  The  pupils  were  paired  on  a  basis 
of  their  rate  scores  in  the  first  Courtis  Test.  After  the 
second  and  third  Courtis  Tests  had  been  applied,  all 
records  of  pupils  were  rejected  if  they  were  not  present 
at  all  three  of  the  tests,  and  no  pupil's  record  was  in- 
cluded unless  the  companion  in  the  "pair"  was  also 
present  at  all  the  tests. 


174 


SILENT    READING 


TABLE  IX.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE  EXPERI- 
MENTAL (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRESPONDING  PUPILS 
IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  III 


TEST  I 

TEST  n 

TEST  HI 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Number  of  A  equal  to  B 

2 

1 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A  . 

7 

8 

3 

7 

4 

9 

Number  of  A  surpassing  B  . 

9 

6 

12 

9 

12 

7 

Group  superiority  A  over  B 

2 

9 

2 

8 

Group  superiority  B  over  A 

2 

2 

Final  superiority  A  over  B  in 

per  cent      

50 

-121 

To  illustrate  the  reading  of  Table  IX,  the  fourth  line  showing  the 
Group  Superiority  A  over  B  is  read  thus :  In  the  first  Courtis  Test,  the 
group  superiority  of  the  experimental  (A)  pupils  over  the  control  (B) 
pupils  in  rate  is  2  pupils;  in  comprehension,  the  "control"  group  excels 
the  experimental  by  2  pupils.  In  the  second  Courtis  Test  the  experi- 
mental's  superiority  in  rate  is  9  pupils,  in  comprehension  2  pupils.  At 
the  end  of  the  training,  there  are  12  experimental  pupils  surpassing  their 
respective  individual  control  pupils,  while  four  members  of  the  control 
group  surpass  their  corresponding  pupils  in  the  experimental  class. 
This  leaves  a  final  net  group  superiority  of  eight  for  the  experimentals 
in  rate,  as  against  a  final  net  group  superiority  of  two  for  the  control 
section  in  comprehension. 

In  Table  IX  the  results  of  the  method  of  individual 
control  are  shown.  Here  the  averages  are  replaced  by 
the  number  of  pupils  in  one  group  who  surpass  their  cor- 
responding pupils  in  the  other  groups.  The  results  of 
this  method  of  control  are  largely  corroborative  of  the 
results  as  shown  by  the  average  scores  in  Table  VIII. 
When  reduced  to  a  percentage  basis,  Table  IX  shows 
a  final  net  superiority  of  50  per  cent  in  rate  for  the  ex- 
perimental over  the  control  group.  The  apparent 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


175 


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176  SILENT   READING 


superiority  of  12£  per  cent  in  comprehension  for  the 
control  sections  over  the  experimental  pupils  is  dis- 
counted by  the  fact  that  they  started  with  an  initial 
group  superiority  of  two  pupils  or  12^  per  cent. 

The  number  of  third-grade  pupils  who  were  matched 
into  pairs,  one  being  in  the  experimental  class,  the  other 
in  the  control  class,  is  too  meager  to  justify  any  but 
the  most  tentative  kind  of  conclusions.  The  pupils 
who  survived  the  matching  process  were  evidently  the 
more  capable  ones,  and  consequently  their  performance 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  typical  of  third-grade  pupils. 
The  results  do  show,  however,  that  third-grade  experi- 
mental pupils  profited  noticeably  by  the  training.  The 
average  rate  of  speed  which  they  finally  obtained  is 
far  in  excess  of  the  standard  rate  reported  for  that  grade 
by  any  of  the  authors  of  the  various  standardized  read- 
ing tests.  Owing  to  the  small  number  of  third-grade 
pupils  participating  in  the  experiment,  the  writer  will 
refrain  from  comparing  these  results  with  those  obtained 
in  the  other  grades  with  a  much  larger  number  of  pupils. 

2.  Fourth-Grade  Pupils 

In  Table  X  are  shown  the  average  scores  of  1  1  fourth- 
grade  classes.  The  total  number  of  pupils  is  236. 
The  average  rates  of  155.7  words  per  minute  for  the 
experimental  group,  and  of  155.1  for  the  control  pupils, 
show  that  the  two  sections  start  the  experiment  with 
practically  equal  proficiency  in  rate.  In  comprehen- 
sion, the  two  groups  are  also  closely  matched,  the  con- 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


177 


trol  pupils  having  an  average  index  of  78.6  per  cent  as 
compared  with  77.4  per  cent  for  the  experimentals. 


TABLE  XI.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE 
EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRE- 
SPONDING PUPILS  IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  IV 


TES 

T   I 

TBS 

T   II 

TESI 

•  III 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

5 

5 

2 

5 

1 

3 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A   .... 

57 

61 

35 

53 

29 

55 

Number  of  A  surpassing  B   . 

36 

52 

72 

51 

88 

60 

Group  Superiority  A  over  B      .     .     . 

— 

— 

37 

— 

59 

5 

Group  Superiority  B  over  A     ... 

1 

9 

— 

2 

— 

— 

Final  Superiority  A  over  B  in  per  cant 

50 

4 

NOTE.     Table  XI  is  to  be  read  in  the  same  manner  as  Table  IX. 

After  one  month  of  training  in  rapid  reading,  the 
experimentals  have  reached  an  average  rate  of  241.9 
as  compared  with  189.5  for  the  controls.  In  compre- 
hension they  have  more  than  held  their  own,  mounting 
to  an  average  index  of  81.2  as  compared  with  78.0  for 
the  controls.  At  the  end  of  the  second  month  of 
training,  the  average  rate  for  the  experimentals  is  236.4 
words  per  minute  as  contrasted  with  188.2  for  the  con- 
trols. The  average  gain  in  rate  for  the  two  months 
is  80.7  words  per  minute  for  the  experimentals  as  against 
33.1  for  the  controls  —  an  average  superiority  in  gain 
of  47.6  for  the  experimental  pupils. 

The  story  told  in  Table  X  is  very  largely  reflected 
by  Table  XL  At  the  beginning  of  the  experiment,  the 
two  groups  displayed  practically  equal  ability  in  read- 


178 


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STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


179 


ing.  This  is  noticeably  so  in  regard  to  rate.  Among 
118  pairs  of  pupils,  there  are  5  pairs  in  which  the  scores 
of  the  two  pupils  are  exactly  the  same,  57  pairs  in 
which  the  experimental  pupil  is  a  trifle  faster  than  his 
checkmate,  and  56  pairs  in  which  the  reverse  is  true. 


TABLE  XIII.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE 
EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRE- 
SPONDING PUPILS  IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  V 


TES 

T   I 

TES 

r  II 

TEW 

r  III 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Number  of  A  equal  to  B  

4 

5 

3 

5 

4 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A   .... 

25 

34 

19 

35 

12 

34 

Number  of  A  surpassing  B  .      ... 

48 

26 

48 

30 

54 

28 

Group  Superiority  A  over  B      .     .     . 

23 

— 

29 

— 

42 

— 

Group  Superiority  B  over  A      ... 

— 

8 

— 

5 

— 

6 

Final  Superiority  A  over  B  in  per  cent 

63} 

-9} 

NOTE.     Table  XIII  is  to  be  read  in  the  same  manner  as  Table  IX. 

At  the  end  of  the  experiment,  the  experimental  group 
shows  a  superiority  of  50  per  cent  in  rate,  and  4  per 
cent  in  comprehension.  These  percentages  of  superior- 
ity of  the  experimental  group  over  the  control  group 
almost  coincide  with  the  superiority  indicated  by 
Table  X.  The  two  methods  of  control  thus  serve  to 
corroborate  the  same  general  conclusions  and  mutually 
to  ree'nforce  each  other. 

3.  Fifthr-Grade  Pupils 

The    effect    of    the    experimental    training    upon 
the    pupils    in    the    fifth    grade    is    shown    in    Table 


180  SILENT   READING 

XII.1  It  includes  seven  classes  comprising  a  total  of  154 
pupils.  Here  again  it  will  be  noted  that  both  the  A  and 
B  groups  commenced  the  experiment  with  equal  initial 
proficiency  in  rate,  190.7  for  the  experimental  as  com- 
pared with  an  average  of  191.9  words  per  minute  for  the 
controls.  The  latter  have  somewhat  of  an  advantage 
in  comprehension  —  86.3  as  against  82.5  for  the  experi- 
mentals. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  month  the  average  of  the  A 
group  had  mounted  to  265.4  as  compared  with  225.6 
for  the  B  group.  After  another  month  of  training,  the 
experimentals  had  increased  their  lead  over  their 
checkmates  by  reaching  an  average  of  277.8  as  against 
222.1  for  the  controls.  The  final  averages  for  compre- 
hension are  85.6  for  the  A  group  and  88.6  for  the  B 
group.  This  reflects  an  average  gain  of  2.9  as  compared 
with  2.3  for  the  controls  —  an  average  superiority  in 
gain  for  the  experimentals  of  0.6.  More  conspicuous 
is  the  average  superiority  of  gain  in  rate  of  the  experi- 
mentals over  the  controls,  87.1  as  against  30.2  —  an 
average  superiority  of  56.9. 

A  comparison  of  Table  XII  with  Table  X  shows  that 
the  amount  of  gain  in  rate  made  by  both  the  experi- 
mental and  control  sections  in  grade  4  is  very  similar 
to  the  gains  made  by  the  experimental  and  control 
groups  respectively  in  grade  5.  The  average  gain  in 

1  Owing  to  the  failure  to  test  the  comprehension  of  the  pupils  in  the 
fifth  grade  in  the  Plumb  School,  the  number  of  pairs  whose  scores  in 
comprehension  were  recorded  is  not  quite  the  same  as  the  number  of 
pairs  whose  rates  of  speed  are  compared. 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  181 

rate  for  the  A  group  in  grade  5  is  87.1  words  per  minute 
as  compared  with  80.7  for  the  corresponding  group  in 
grade  4  —  an  average  superiority  in  gain  of  6.4  words 
per  minute  for  the  fifth  grade.  The  controls  in  grade  5 
scored  a  gain  of  30.8  as  against  an  average  gain  of  33.1 
words  per  minute  for  the  controls  in  grade  4  —  a  differ- 
ence of  2.3  in  favor  of  grade  4.  On  the  whole,  the  aver- 
age gain  in  rate  of  the  fifth  grade  is  superior  to  that  of 
the  fourth  grade ;  so  also  is  the  final  average  rate  to 
which  the  fifth  grade  attains  —  277.8  words  per 
minute  as  against  236.4  for  the  experimentals  in  the 
fourth  grade. 

The  final  net  superiority  in  rate  of  the  experimentals 
in  grade  5  over  their  checkmates  as  determined  by  the 
method  of  individual  control,  as  shown  in  Table  XIII, 
is  42  pupils.  This  means  that  out  of  66  pairs  of  pupils 
who  were  closely  matched  at  the  beginning  of  the 
experiment,  54  experimental  pupils  surpassed  their 
checkmates  in  rate  of  reading  at  the  end  of  the  train- 
ing, as  against  12  control  pupils  who  surpassed  their 
corresponding  experimental  pupils  in  rate.  This  leaves 
a  final  superiority  of  42  pupils  in  favor  of  the  A  group, 
or  a  superiority  of  63^  per  cent.  In  comprehension, 
Table  XIII  shows  a  superiority  of  6  pupils  or  9£  per 
cent  in  favor  of  the  B  group.  This  latter  is  discounted, 
however,  by  the  fact  that  the  B  section  started  with  an 
initial  superiority  of  8  over  the  A  group.  The  training 
received  by  the  experimentals  reduced  this  lead  to  6. 


182 


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STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


183 


4.   Sixth-Grade  Pupils 

The  results  of  the  training  upon  five  sixth-grade 
classes  having  a  total  of  128  pupils  are  shown  in  Table 
XIV.  The  average  rate  of  197.8  words  per  minute  for 
the  experimentals  mounted  to  284.7  after  a  month's 
training ;  by  the  end  of  the  training  period  they  had  at- 
tained an  average  of  292.6  words  per  minute.  The  con- 
trol sections  started  with  an  average  rate  of  204.7  —  an 
average  initial  superiority  of  6.6  words  per  minute 
over  the  experimental  pupils.  After  a  month  of  the 
conventional  reading  work,  the  controls  averaged  235.4  ; 
during  the  second  month  their  rate  remained  prac- 
tically stationary  as  shown  by  their  average  of  235.0  at 
the  end  of  the  experiment.  The  final  average  gain  in 
rate  for  the  A  group  is  94.8  words  per  minute  as  com- 
pared with  30.6  for  the  B  group,  a  superiority  in  gain 
of  64.2  for  the  experimental  pupils. 


TABLE  XV.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE 
EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRE- 
SPONDING PUPILS  IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  IV 


Tea 

T    I 

TES 

r  II 

TESI 

•  III 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Number  of  A  equal  to  B  

3 

10 

1 

8 



2 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A  .... 

38 

28 

23 

33 

8 

24 

Number  of  A  surpassing  B  .     .     .     . 

23 

26 

40 

23 

44 

26 

Group  Superiority  A  over  B     .     .     . 

— 

— 

17 

— 

36 

2 

Group  Superiority  B  over  A      ... 

15 

2 

— 

10 

— 

— 

Final  Superiority  A  over  B  in  per  cent 

69 

4* 

NOTE.    Table  XV  ia  to  be  read  in  the  same  manner  as  Table  IX. 


184 


SILENT   READING 


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10  .  GRADE  VII  Total  Number  of  Pupils  206 

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STATEMENT    OF   RESULTS 


185 


In  point  of  comprehension  Table  XIV  shows  a  slight 
decrease  for  both  the  A  and  the  B  groups.  The  average 
index  of  comprehension  of  the  A  group  at  the  beginning 
of  the  training  is  91.0  as  against  88.2  at  the  end.  The 
average  for  the  control  pupils  drops  from  92.6  to  88.5 
—  a  decrease  of  4.1  as  against  2.8  for  the  experimentals. 
This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  decrease,  slight 
as  it  is,  cannot  be  attributed  to  their  acceleration  in 
reading  rate.  For  the  control  pupils,  whose  gain  in 
rate  is  less  than  one-third  the  gain  of  the  experimental 
pupils,  decreased  about  one  and  a  half  times  as  much 
in  comprehension  as  the  experimentals.  The  decrease 
in  the  case  of  the  experimentals  is  so  slight  as  to  be  of 
no  special  significance. 


TABLE  XVII.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE 
EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRE- 
SPONDING PUPILS  IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  VII 


TEST  I 

TEST  II 

TEST  III 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Number  of  A  equal  to  B  

5 
39 
59 
20 

12 
41 
50 
9 

1 
25 
77 
52 

18 
39 
46 

7 

20 
83 
63 

61 

7 
42 
54 
12 

11J 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A  .... 
Number  of  A  surpassing  B  .  .  .  . 
Group  Superiority  A  over  B  .  .  . 
Group  Superiority  B  over  A  ... 
Final  Superiority  A  over  B  in  per  cent 

NOTE.     Table  XVII  is  to  be  read  in  the  same  manner  aa  Table  IX. 

Table  XV  tells  very  much  the  same  story  as  Table 
XIV.  The  conclusions  issuing  from  the  two  methods 
of  control  —  group  and  individual  —  serve  to  reenforce 


186  SILENT   READING 

each  other.  The  outstanding  facts  shown  by  Table 
XV  are  these :  From  a  total  of  64  pairs  of  pupils,  38 
controls  surpassed  their  corresponding  experimentals, 
as  against  23  experimentals  who  surpassed  their  check- 
mates. At  the  end  of  the  experiment,  from  a  total 
of  52  pairs,  44  experimentals  excelled  their  check- 
mates, as  contrasted  with  the  eight  controls  who  sur- 
passed their  experimentals.  Reduced  to  a  percentage 
basis,  the  A  group  surpassed  the  B  group  by  69  per 
cent  in  rate  and  4^  per  cent  in  comprehension. 

5.   Seventh-Grade  Pupils 

The  records  of  the  seventh-grade  classes  totaling 
206  pupils  are  presented  in  Table  XVI.  Both  groups 
commence  with  approximately  equal  averages  in  rate 
and  comprehension.  In  the  latter  respect,  the  two 
averages  differ  by  but  0.1.  A  month's  training  in 
rapid  reading  brings  the  average  of  the  experimentals 
from  205.6  per  minute  to  298.5,  whence  it  rises  to  321.6 
by  the  end  of  the  second  month.  The  experimentals 
far  outstrip  their  checkmates  whose  rate  during  the 
same  two  months  of  conventional  work  in  reading 
reaches  only  249.7  words  per  minute.  The  average 
gain  of  the  A  group  is  116.0  as  compared  with  47.2  for 
the  B  group  —  an  average  superiority  in  gain  of  68.8. 
In  comprehension  the  experimentals  likewise  surpass 
their  checkmates.  Their  average  rises  from  91.2  to 
92.3  as  compared  with  the  slight  increase  from  91.3 
to  91.4  by  the  control  pupils.  The  superiority  of  gain 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


187 


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in  comprehension  by  the  A  group  is  not,  however, 
very  appreciable,  being  but  1.0. 

On  the  basis  of  the  method  of  individual  control, 
Table  XVII  shows  a  superiority  of  61  per  cent  in  rate 
and  11  per  cent  in  comprehension  in  favor  of  the 
experimental  group  over  the  control  pupils. 

6.    Eighth-Grade  Pupils 

From  the  fourth  grade  on,  the  tables  have  shown  an 
increase  in  the  amount  of  gain  by  the  experimentals 
as  the  grade  advanced.  This  is  especially  true  of  the 
eighth  grade,  where  the  amount  of  gain  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  of  the  lower  grades.  From  an  average 
rate  of  220.8,  the  A  group  rises  to  361.2  after  one 
month's  training,  and  to  393.0  at  the  end  of  the  second 
month.  This  is  the  highest  average  rate  of  speed 
which  any  of  the  experimental  groups  attained  on  the 


TABLE  XIX.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  PUPILS  IN  THE 
EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  GROUP  WHO  SURPASSED  THEIR  CORRE- 
SPONDING PUPILS  IN  THE  CONTROL  (B)  GROUP 

GRADE  VIII 


TES 

T   I 

TBS 

r  II 

TEST 

p  III 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Rate 

Com. 

Number  of  A  equal  to  B  

6 

10 

1 

6 

4 

Number  of  B  surpassing  A   .... 

9 

16 

11 

25 

13 

16 

Number  of  A  surpassing  B   .     .     .     . 

31 

20 

34 

15 

33 

26 

Group  superority  A  over  B  .     .     .     . 

22 

4 

23 

— 

20 

10 

Group  superiority  B  over  A       ... 

— 

— 

— 

10 

— 

— 

Final  superiority  A  over  B  in  per  cent 

43$ 

22 

NOTE.     Table  XIX  is  to  be  read  in  the  same  manner  as  Table  IX. 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


189 


TABLE  XX.  TABLE  SHOWING  AVERAGE  RATE  OF  READING  FOR  EX- 
PERIMENTAL (A)  AND  "  CONTROL  "  (B)  PUPILS  AT  BEGINNING  AND 
END  OF  TRAINING  PERIOD  AS  DETERMINED  BY  COURTIS  SILENT 
READING  TEST  FOR  GRADES  IV-VIII 


NUM- 

TEST  I 

TEST  II 

TEST  III 

GAIN 

A's 

Crrnn 

PUPILS 

A 

B 

A 

B 

A 

B 

A 

B 

IN  GAIN 

IV      . 

236 

155.7 

155.1 

241.9 

189.5 

236.4 

188.2 

80.7 

33.1 

47.6 

31% 

V  .    . 

154 

190.7 

191.9 

265.4 

225.6 

277.8 

222.1 

87.1 

30.2 

56.9 

30% 

VI      . 

128 

197.8 

204.4 

284.7 

235.4 

292.6 

235. 

94.8 

30.6 

64.2 

33% 

VII     . 

206 

205.6 

202.5 

298.5 

237.21 

321.6 

249.7 

116.0 

47.2 

68.8 

33% 

VIII  . 

92 

220.8 

211.7 

361.2 

290.5 

393.0 

301.8 

172.2 

90.1 

82.1 

35% 

Average  gain  of  A  for  all  grades  =  56%;  ofB  =  25%;  A's  superiority 
over  B=31%. 


TABLE  XXI.  TABLE  SHOWING  AVERAGE  COMPREHENSION  IN  READING 
FOR  EXPERIMENTAL  (A)  AND  "CONTROL"  (B)  PUPILS  AT  BEGIN- 
NING* MIDDLE,  AND  END  OF  TRAINING  PERIOD  AS  DETERMINED 
BY  COURTIS  SILENT  READING  TEST 


GRADE 

Nmi- 

TEST  I 

TEST  II 

TEST  III 

GAIN 

A's 

BER  OF 

PUPILS 

A 

B 

A 

B 

A 

B 

A 

B 

SUPERIORITY 
IN  GAIN 

IV.     . 

236 

77.4 

78.6 

81.2 

78.0 

81.6 

79.1 

4.2 

.5 

3.7 

v  .   . 

154 

82.5 

86.3 

87.0 

89.9 

85.6 

88.6 

2.9 

2.3 

0.6 

VI  .     . 

128 

91.0 

92.6 

90.8 

90.4 

88.2 

88.5 

-2.8 

-4.1 

1.3 

VII     . 

206 

91.2 

91.3 

94.1 

93.5 

92.3 

91.4 

1.1 

0.1 

1.0 

VIII    . 

92 

95.8 

96.5 

94.3 

96.3 

94.8 

94.1 

-1.0 

-2.4 

1.4 

Average  gain  of  A  for  all  grades  =  .09%;  ofB=-0.7%;  A's  superi- 
ority over  B  =  1.6%. 

Courtis  Test.  The  controls  likewise  achieved  the  con- 
siderable gain  of  90.1  words  —  mounting  from  211.7 
to  301.8.  It  is,  however,  just  about  half  the  gain  made 
by  the  experimentals  —  90.1  as  against  172.2  for  the 
experimental  group.  The  averages  for  comprehension 


190  SILENT  READING 

have  varied  but  little  in  the  case  of  both  groups  —  a 
decrease  of  2.4  for  the  controls  as  against  a  decrease  of 
1.0  for  the  experimentals. 

SUMMARY  OF  EFFECTS  OF  THE  TRAINING  UPON  ALL 

GRADES 

The  results  of  the  preceding  tables  in  regard  to  the 
average  rates  of  the  different  grades  are  summed  up  in 
Table  XX.  The  advancement  in  rate  of  reading  as 
shown  in  the  three  tests  is  fairly  uniform  as  the  grade 
increases.  From  an  average  in  the  first  Courtis  Test 
of  155.7  words  per  minute  for  the  experimentals  in  the 
fourth  grade,  the  average  continues  to  advance  until 
in  the  eighth  grade  it  reaches  220.8.  At  the  end  of  the 
training,  the  average  for  the  A  groups  rises  from  236.4 
words  per  minute  in  the  fourth  grade  until  it  reaches 
393.0  in  the  eighth  grade.  Reducing  the  average  gains 
in  number  of  words  read  per  minute  to  a  percentage 
basis,  it  becomes  possible  to  express  the  amount  of 
improvement  for  the  experimental  pupils  in  all  the 
grades  in  a  single  term  —  56  per  cent.  The  average 
gain  for  the  control  pupils  in  all  the  grades  is  25  per  cent. 
This  shows  a  final  average  superiority  in  gain  for  the 
experimental  pupils  over  their  checkmates  of  31  per 
cent.  In  terms  of  the  number  of  words  read  per 
minute  the  average  gain  of  the  A  group  is  110.2  as 
against  46.2  for  the  B  group  —  an  average  superiority 
in  gain  of  64  words  per  minute  in  favor  of  the  experi- 
mental or  A  group. 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS  191 

A  summary  of  the  scores  of  the  different  grades  in 
comprehension  is  presented  in  Table  XXI.  The  gains 
or  losses  for  neither  group  are  especially  significant. 
The  only  gains  which  appear  at  all  appreciable  occur 
in  the  experimental  sections  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
grades  —  gains  of  4.2  and  2.9  respectively.  The  final 
average  gain  of  the  experimental  groups  in  all  the  grades 
is  0.9  per  cent  as  against  an  average  loss  of  0.7  per  cent 
for  the  control  pupils.  This  gives  the  experimental 
groups  an  average  superiority  in  gain  in  comprehension 
of  1.6  per  cent  over  the  control  groups.  The  measure 
of  comprehension  here  used  is  the  index  computed  ac- 
cording to  the  directions  of  Courtis.  The  results  of 
the  application  of  a  somewhat  different  measure  of  the 
efficiency  of  comprehension,  namely,  the  number  of 
questions  correctly  answered  in  five  minutes,  will  be 
presented  later. 

A  summary  of  the  results  of  the  experimental  train- 
ing upon  the  rate  and  comprehension  in  all  the  grades 
as  shown  by  the  method  of  individual  control  is  pre- 
sented in  Tables  XXII  and  XXIII.  Table  XXII 
shows  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment  there 
were  401  pairs  of  pupils,  one  of  each  pair  being  in  the 
experimental  and  the  other  in  the  control  group.  The 
pupils  constituting  each  pair  were  approximately  evenly 
matched,  though  at  times  the  variation  between  the 
pupils  in  a  pair  was  not  inappreciable.  The  amount 
of  variation  to  be  found  in  the  rates  of  any  class  of 
pupils  is  such  as  to  render  very  small  the  number  of 


192  SILENT   READING 

pupils  who  score  exactly  the  same  rate.  Of  the 
401  pairs  in  the  present  inyestigation  there  were  23 
experimentals  whose  scores  were  identical  with  those  of 
their  checkmates ;  while  165  controls  were  superior 
to  their  corresponding  experimentals  as  against  213 
experimentals  who  were  above  their  controls.  In  both 
the  latter  cases  the  differences  as  a  rule  were  slight,  as 
was  evidenced  by  the  close  similarities  of  their  averages. 

At  the  end  of  the  training  the  results  were  :  one  pair 
identically  equal ;  86  controls  superior  to  their  corre- 
spondents in  the  experimental  group  as  contrasted  with 
314  experimentals  who  were  superior  to  their  controls  — 
a  final  net  superiority  of  228  pairs  for  the  experimentals. 
Subtracting  from  this  total  the  amount  of  A's  initial 
superiority  of  48;  the  results  show  a  final  superiority 
in  gain  of  the  A  group  over  the  B  group  of  180  pupils, 
or  45  per  cent. 

Table  XXIII  shows  that  the  B  group  starts  the  ex- 
periment with  somewhat  of  a  superiority  over  the  A 
group  in  comprehension.  Of  a  total  of  389  l  pairs, 
41  pairs  have  the  same  scores  for  each  of  the  members 
of  the  pair,  while  180  controls  surpassed  their  experi- 
mentals as  against  168  experimentals  who  surpassed 
their  checkmates,  —  an  initial  superiority  of  12  in 
favor  of  the  B  group.  At  the  end  of  the  training  there 
were  20  pairs  whose  members  have  equal  scores,  while 
180  controls  surpassed  their  experimentals  as  against 

1  Reduced  from  401  pairs  because,  as  indicated,  12  pairs  in  the  fifth 
grade  were  not  rated  in  comprehension. 


STATEMENT   OF   RESULTS 


193 


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194  SILENT   READING 

201  experimental  who  were  superior  to  their  controls  — 
a  superiority  of  21  in  favor  of  the  experimentals.  This 
number  is  to  be  augmented  by  12,  the  handicap  under 
which  the  A  group  started,  giving  a  final  superiority 
in  gain  in  comprehension  of  32  pairs  or  8  per  cent  for  the 
experimental  pupils  over  their  control  pupils. 

The  results  of  the  method  of  individual  control  serve 
as  a  powerful  reenforcement  of  a  refined  type  of  the  con- 
clusions issuing  from  a  comparison  of  the  average 
scores  of  the  two  groups.  This  method  of  control 
shows  furthermore  that  the  superiority  of  the  experi- 
mental group  over  the  control  group  is  not  due  merely 
to  a  very  marked  superiority  of  a  rather  small  number 
of  pupils,  but  that  the  superiority  is  spread  very  largely 
throughout  the  whole  group. 


CHAPTER  IX 
INTERPRETATION  OF  RESULTS 

THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  TRAINING  UPON  READING  RATE 

GRAPH  I  illustrates  the  data  contained  in  Table  XX. 
It  presents  very  clearly  the  differences  in  amount  of 
improvement  in  reading  rate  achieved  by  the  experi- 
mental pupils  and  the  controls.  While  in  every  grade 
the  two  groups  start  at  practically  the  same  level  of 
reading  rate,  yet  in  every  grade  the  experimental  pupils 
far  outstrip  the  controls.  The  bulk  of  improvement,  it 
will  be  noticed,  is  effected  in  the  first  month  of  the  training. 
With  the  exception,  however,  of  the  fourth  grade,  in 
which  there  occurs  a  very  slight  decrease,  improvement 
of  a  lesser  character  continues  during  the  second 
month. 

The  decided  improvement  made  by  the  pupils  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  first  month  of  the  training  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  customary  reading  rate  of  pupils  was  far 
below  the  rate  at  which  they  could  read  intelligently 
and  efficiently.  In  other  words,  they  were  not  working 
on  the  maximum  plane  of  efficiency.  Thus  the  pupils 
in  the  seventh  grade  are  able  to  increase  their  rate  116 
words  per  minute,  while  the  eighth-grade  pupils  succeed 

195 


196 


SILENT   READING 


in  almost  doubling  their  rate  —  without  in  either  case 
experiencing  any  appreciable  decrease  in  comprehen- 
sion. In  fact,  in  one  case,  a  slight  improvement  is 


No.  T. 


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INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  197 

effected.  This  result  gives  some  point  to  the  query : 
Is  not  the  reading  of  most  individuals  done  at  slow, 
plodding  rates  which  are  far  below  the  levels  attainable 
by  a  little  training  ?  The  results  portrayed  in  Graph  I 
point  strongly  in  that  direction. 

The  Effect  upon  Comprehension 

That  the  comprehension  has  not  been  greatly  af- 
fected either  favorably  or  adversely  is  shown  by  Graph 
II.  The  comprehension  remained  constant  to  a  large 
extent  in  both  the  experimental  and  control  groups. 
The  slight  superiority  in  gain  that  does  exist,  however, 
is  in  each  grade  in  favor  of  the  experimental  pupils. 
The  conclusions  that  would  seem  to  follow  from  the 
performances  of  the  pupils  in  comprehension  in  this 
study  are: 

1.  Marked    increases   in    speed  of  reading  may  be 
effected  without  any  impairment  of  the  comprehen- 
sion. 

2.  The  setting  up  of  habits  of  rapid  reading  does 
not  per  se  increase  the  accuracy  of  the  comprehen- 
sion. 

3.  To    secure    marked    improvement    hi    accuracy 
of  comprehension  special  stress  must  be  placed  upon 
training  designed  specifically  to  increase  the  accuracy 
of  the  comprehension. 

While  the  experimental  training  outlined  in  this  study 
succeeded  in  safeguarding  and  even  slightly  improving 
the  accuracy  of  the  comprehension,  yet  its  predominant 


198 


SILENT   READING 


effect  was  the  marked  acceleration  of  the  reading  rate. 
To  produce  such  an  effect  upon  the  rate  was  precisely 
the  end  for  which  the  training  was  devised. 


No 


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The  Relative  Amount  of  Gain  Made  by  Different  Grades 

A  comparison  of  the  amount  of  gain  in  rate  made  by 
the  experimental  and  control  pupils  in  each  of  the 
grades  is  given  in  Graph  III.  The  graph  brings  out 
clearly  the  fact  that  the  amount  of  gain  increases  as  the 
grade  advances.  In  every  case  in  the  experimental 
groups  the  gain  made  by  the  higher  grade  is  superior  to 
that  made  by  the  lower.  With  the  single  exception  of 
the  sixth  grade,  this  is  true  likewise  of  the  control  groups. 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


199 


This  superiority  in  gain  in  rate  by  the  upper  grades 
over  the  lower  is  quite  the  opposite  of  what  has  usually 
been  reported  concerning  the  relative  gains  made  by 
the  different  grades.  The  third  and  fourth  grades 
have  been  of  late  generally  regarded  as  the  crucial 
school  periods  during  which  the  appreciable  increases 
in  rate  of  reading  are  to  be  effected.  The  results  re- 


to      V///    aj 


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ported  by  W.  S.  Gray,  Judd,  Courtis,  and  Waldo  have 
shown  that  de  facto  the  important  gains  are  made  in 
the  lower  grades,  especially  in  the  third  and  fourth. 
What  is  the  explanation  of  the  difference  of  the  relative 
amount  of  gain  made  by  the  different  grades  as  re- 
ported by  other  investigators  and  those  reported  in  the 
present  study  ?  In  the  writer's  judgment  the  explana- 
tion is  not  far  to  seek. 


200  SILENT   READING 

The  gains  reported  by  other  investigators  were  the 
results  of  the  conventional  type  of  training  in  reading 
with  almost  the  entire  emphasis  upon  the  oral  phase. 
The  matter  of  rapidity  in  silent  reading  has  not  as  yet 
become  a  problem  in  the  minds  of  the  majority  of  upper 
grade  teachers,  much  less  in  the  minds  of  their  pupils. 
During  the  third  and  fourth  grades,  great  stress  is 
placed  by  the  teachers  upon  the  mastery  of  the  mechan- 
ics of  reading.  Generous  portions  of  time  are  devoted 
to  this  task.  After  this  has  been  accomplished,  the 
pupils  are  allowed  to  slumber  along  at  the  slow,  dead- 
level  plodding  rates  which  became  fixed  for  them  in 
the  days  of  sempiternal  drill  in  oral  reading.  Reading 
from  the  fourth  grade  on  continues  largely  as 
an  exhibition  of  word  pronouncing,  articulation,  etc. 
As  Judd  aptly  phrases  it,  "The  conscientious  teacher 
supplied  with  a  reading  book  and  a  period  in  the 
program  carries  on  the  well-known  reading  farce  in  the 
vain  hope  that  the  effects  of  unsuccessful  teaching  will 
be  overcome  by  a  liberal  application  of  the  same 
methods  that  produced  the  difficulties." 

The  value  of  an  acceleration  of  the  rate  in  silent 
reading  never  seems  to  dawn  upon  them.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  rate  does  not  notably  rise  as  the  grade 
advances.  The  wonder,  rather,  is  that  the  rate  does  not 
decrease  as  a  result  of  the  grotesquely  misplaced  em- 
phasis on  oral  reading  and  the  school's  utter  neglect 
of  reading  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term  —  the  silent 
interpretation  of  the  printed  symbols. 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  201 

The  increases  in  reading  rate  in  the  different  grades 
as  reported  by  K.  D.  Waldo  are  shown  in  Table  XXIV. 
The  increases  effected  in  the  upper  grades  as  a  result 
of  almost  a  year's  teaching  of  reading  are  so  meager 
as  to  be  scarcely  perceptible  —  2.1  and  11.7  words 
in  the  sixth  and  eighth  grades  respectively.  The  rate 
is  practically  at  a  standstill  from  the  fourth  grade  on. 
A  condition  such  as  this  is,  in  the  writer's  judgment, 
nothing  less  than  pathological.  It  is  a  serious  indict- 
ment of  the  present  school  regime  in  the  teaching  of 
reading. 

In  the  present  investigation  rapidity  in  silent  read- 
ing was  made  a  problem.  It  was  recognized  as  a  value 
to  be  striven  for  and  to  be  achieved  through  training. 
Graph  III  shows  the  results  of  the  pupils'  effort.  They 
secured  that  for  which  they  strove. 

From  these  results  three  conclusions  would  seem  to 
follow : 

1.  Marked  increases  in  rate  can  be  effected  in  the 
upper  grades  when  speed  in  reading  is  made  a  problem 
in  the  minds  of  the  pupils. 

2.  When  training  in  rapid  silent  reading  is  given  to 
pupils  not  previously  trained  therein,  the  acceleration 
in  rate  tends  in  a  general  way  to  advance  pari  passu 
with  the  advance  in  the  grade  —  the  higher  the  grade, 
the  greater  being  the  increase  in  rate. 

3.  The  present  average  rates  in  the  upper  grades 
are  unnecessarily  slow,  due  to  the  absence  on  the  part 
of  the  school  of  any  organized  effort  to  accelerate  them. 


202 


SILENT   READING 


The   data   concerning  the   gains   in   comprehension 
contained  in  Table  XXI  are  shown  in  Graph  IV.     It  is 


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to  be  noted  that  no  grade  in  either  the  experimental 
or  the  control  group  varies  more  than  about  four  points 
from  its  initial  average. 

TABLE  XXIV.     THE  INCREASE  IN  READING  RATE  IN  THE  DIFFERENT 
GRADES  AS  REPORTED  BY  K.  D.  WALDO 


INCREASE  IN 

GBADB 

FALL  RATE 

SPRING  RATE 

NUMBER  OP 
WORDS 

PER  CENT 

3 

76.4 

149.1 

72.7 

95.2 

4 

92.7 

163.3 

70.6 

76.1 

5 

113.0 

129.2 

16.2 

14.3 

6 

128.0 

130.1 

2.1 

1.2 

7 

122.7 

142.8 

20.1 

16.4 

8 

147.2 

158.9 

11.7 

8.0 

INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


203 


TABLE    XXV.     COMPARISON  OF  AVERAGES  IN  RATE  ATTAINED  BY 
PUPILS  AFTER  TRAINING  —  WITH  PRESENT  NORMS 


GRADE 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

vin 

O'Brien    .... 

236 

278 

293 

322 

393 

Oberholtzer  .     .     . 

156 

186 

234 

282 

288 

Courtis     .... 

160 

180 

220 

250 

280 

Gary   

140 

166 

185 

198 

204 

Starch      .... 

144 

168 

192 

216 

240 

Brown      .... 

213 

269 

272 

279 

290 

Gray   

180 

204 

216 

228 

234 

TABLE  XXVI.     TENTATIVE  NORMS  FOR  PUPILS  TRAINED  IN  RAPID 
SILENT  READING 


GRADE 

ACTUAL  AVERAGE 

P.  E. 

SUGGESTED 
NORMS 

IV      

236.4 

12.13 

236 

V        

277.8 

8.37 

266 

VI      

292.6 

8.71 

296 

VII    

321.6 

7.01 

326 

VIII  

393.0 

12.77 

356 

Average  Rates  Attained  by  Pupils  After  Training 
Compared  with  Present  Norms 

A  comparison  of  the  averages  of  the  experimental 
pupils  in  grades  4  to  8  with  the  norms  reported  by 
Courtis,  Brown,  Gray,  Starch,  and  Oberholtzer  is  pre- 
sented in  Table  XXV.  There  is  a  common  basis  of  com- 
parison between  the  averages  of  the  experimental  pupils 
and  the  norms  reported  by  Courtis.  Both  were  achieved 
on  the  Courtis  Test  and  the  directions  to  the  pupils 


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204 

INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  205 

in  both  cases  were  identical.  The  norms  reported  by 
Courtis  represent  the  smoothed  averages,  the  figures 
presented  by  the  writer  are  the  actual  averages.  A 
comparison  of  these  two  norms  is  shown  in  Graph  V. 
It  brings  out  strikingly  the  difference  in  superiority 
in  the  reading  rate  of  pupils  who  have  received  training 
in  rapid  effective  silent  reading  and  pupils  who  have 
been  nurtured  on  the  conventional  pabulum  of  drill 
in  oral  reading.  The  superiority  of  the  experimental 
pupils  in  every  grade  is  very  marked.  Not  less  notice- 
able is  the  superiority  over  the  norms  reported  by  W.  S. 
Gray  and  by  Oberholtzer,  as  shown  in  Graph  VI. 
The  norms  reported  by  Gray  for  the  three  different 
selections  in  his  reading  test  have  been  adjusted  here 
to  the  basis  of  the  easiest  selection,  "Tiny  Tad." 

The  highest  norms  reported  are  those  by  Brown. 
They  represent,  however,  not  the  averages  of  all  the 
pupils  tested  in  the  different  grades,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  other  investigators,  but  the  highest  averages  reached 
by  various  single  classes  tested  by  Brown.  Conse- 
quently they  are  offered  as  norms  or  standards  to  be 
striven  after  rather  than  indices  of  the  present  average 
attainment  of  the  different  grades.  These  standards 
mentioned  by  Brown  come  closer  to  the  averages  ac- 
tually reached  by  the  experimental  classes  than  those 
of  any  of  the  other  investigators.  They  are,  how- 
ever, very  considerably  below  them,  as  shown  in 
Graph  VII. 

The  present  norms  for  reading  rate  have  all  been 


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208  SILENT   READING 

derived  from  the  performances  of  pupils  who  have  been 
trained  in  the  conventional  type  of  oral  reading.  In 
the  vast  majority  of  cases  they  have  received  no  train- 
ing in  rapid  silent  reading.  What  the  norms  will  be 
after  the  schools  begin  to  train  in  rapid  silent  reading 
is  an  interesting  question  which  the  future  alone  can 
answer.  As  the  result  of  a  pioneer  effort  in  a  virgin  field, 
the  smoothed  averages  attained  by  the  experimental 
pupils  in  the  different  grades  in  the  present  investigation 
are  suggested  as  tentative  norms.  The  degree  of  reliabil- 
ity of  the  averages  for  the  different  grades  has  been  com- 
puted in  terms  of  the  P.  E.1  which  are  presented  in  Table 
XXVI.  It  is  noted  that  the  P.  E.  is  relatively  small, 
indicating  a  rather  high  degree  of  reliability  for  the 
averages. 

Variability  in  the  Amount  of  Gain  in  Rate 

To  show  the  range  or  variability  in  amount  of  gain 
in  rate  of  the  experimental  pupils  compared  with  the 
control  pupils,  Graph  VIII  is  offered.  A  hundred  pairs 

1  P.  E.  refers  to  the  "  probable  error."  As  Whipple  observes,  "  The 
term  probable  error  is  often  a  source  of  confusion  to  those  unfamiliar 
with  its  use  in  mathematics.  For  a  descriptive  term,  we  might  call  it 
the  '  median  deviation,'  since  it  is  that  deviation  that  is  found  midway 
from  the  representative  value  in  either  direction.  The  magnitude  in 
question  is  not,  of  course,  the  most  probable  error,  neither  is  it,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  a  '  mistake.'  It  is  rather  a  '  probable  sampling  error ' :  we  are 
unable  to  measure  every  possible  instance  of  the  thing  we  are  studying, 
but  must  content  ourselves  with  a  restricted  number  of  samples,  usually 
so  taken  as  to  be '  random  samples.'  The  P.  E.  serves  to  indicate  the  re- 
liability of  these  random  samples,  the  degree  to  which  they  probably  de- 
part from  the  true  universal  values." 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


209 


of  pupils,  each  pair  consisting  of  one  experimental  and 
one  control  pupil,  were  selected  at  random  from  a  much 
larger  list  containing  the  pairs  of  pupils  whose  initial 
scores  in  rate  were  approximately  equal.  To  facilitate 
comparison,  the  gain  of  each  pupil  was  expressed  as  a 
per  cent  of  his  initial  score.  Graph  VIII  shows  that 
the  gains  of  the  experimental  pupils  are  grouped  much 
more  closely  to  the  ordinate  than  the  gains  of  the  ex- 
perimentals.  The  larger  gains  are  made  almost  en- 
tirely by  the  latter  group. 


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210  SILENT   READING 

Measurement  of  the  Comprehension  by  the  Number  of 
Questions  Correctly  Answered 

As  mentioned  previously,  the  Courtis  Index  of  Com- 
prehension is  a  measure  merely  of  accuracy.  It  does 
not  reflect  in  any  way  the  number  of  questions 
answered.  Now  obviously  efficiency  in  comprehension 
consists  not  only  in  accuracy  but  in  the  number  of 
actions  correctly  performed.  To  measure  this  latter 
phase  of  comprehension,  which  entirely  escapes  the 
Courtis  Index,  the  number  of  questions  correctly 
answered  was  employed  as  a  supplementary  measuring 
device.  Indeed,  unpublished  data  at  the  Bureau 
of  Educational  Research  at  the  University  of  Illinois 
show  that  a  higher  correlation  exists  between  the 
scores  in  comprehension  as  determined  by  other  stand- 
ard reading  tests  and  the  number  of  questions  correctly 
answered,  than  between  the  comprehension  scores  in 
other  tests  and  Courtis'  Index  of  Comprehension. 

The  increase  in  the  number  of  correct  answers  re- 
flects furthermore  the  increase  in  the  rate  of  reading  of 
a  passage  in  which  the  comprehension  is  required  and 
on  which  it  is  tested.  This  device  makes  it  possible, 
moreover,  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  increased 
speed  of  reading  effected  by  the  training  persisted  in 
different  situations.  For  the  mental  attitude  assumed 
in  reading  a  passage  to  answer  questions  on  it  imme- 
diately is  considerably  different  from  that  assumed 
in  reading  a  passage  rapidly,  simply  "to  get  the  gist" 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  211 

of  it.  It  is  thought  that  the  employment  of  this  device 
in  the  present  study  obviates  the  one  serious  weakness 
inherent  in  the  Courtis  Reading  Test.  The  perform- 
ances of  247  experimental  pupils  selected  at  random 
from  different  grades  were  subjected  to  this  sort  of 
analysis.  The  results  are  presented  in  Table  XXVII. 

A  very  marked  increase  is  shown  hi  the  number  of 
questions  correctly  answered  by  the  experimental  pupils 
in  all  the  grades.  In  fact,  the  number  of  questions 
correctly  answered  by  the  pupils  after  receiving  the 
training  in  rapid  reading  is  greater  than  the  norms  or 
average  number  of  questions  attempted  as  reported  by 
Courtis.  The  average  number  of  correct  answers 
for  the  fourth  grade  as  shown  in  Table  XXVII  is  34.8 
as  against  Courtis'  norm  of  30  questions  attempted ; 
for  the  fifth  grade  it  is  42.1  as  against  37  ;  for  the  sixth 
grade,  48.4  as  against  40.  No  norms  have  been  sug- 
gested by  Courtis  for  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades. 
The  average  number  of  questions  correctly  answered 
by  the  different  experimental  classes  at  the  beginning 
and  end  of  the  training  are  compared  in  Graph  IX  with 
the  norms  reported  by  Courtis  for  the  number  of  ques- 
tions attempted,  whether  answered  correctly  or  not. 

The  conclusions  that  would  seem  to  follow  from  this 
phase  of  the  investigation  are  these : 

1.  Marked  improvement  in  the  efficiency  of  the 
comprehension  resulted  from  the  training,  as  shown  by 
the  gain  in  the  number  of  questions  correctly  an- 
swered. 


212 


SILENT   READING 

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INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  213 

2.  This  phase  of  the  efficiency  of  comprehension  is 
measured  in  no  way  by  Courtis'  Index  of  Comprehen- 
sion,  which  is,   more  strictly   speaking,   an  index  of 
accuracy. 

3.  The  marked   gain   in   the  number  of  questions 
correctly  answered  demonstrates  the  persistence  of  the 
improvement  in  reading  rate  in  a  changed  situation  in- 
volving  a  different  mental  attitude  —  i.e.    in  careful 
reading  for  the  purpose  of  answering  written  questions. 

Comparison  of  the  Results  of  Method  I  and  Method  II 

Which  type  of  training  —  No.  I.  Training  in  Rapid 
Silent  Reading  or  No.  II.  Training  to  Decrease 
Vocalization  in  Silent  Reading  —  proved  the  more 
effective?  As  was  stated  in  the  previous  chapters, 
these  methods  are  substantially  the  same  —  the  chief 
difference  being  a  difference  of  stress.  In  the  latter 
method  the  attempt  to  decrease  vocalization  in  order 
to  improve  the  rate  of  reading  is  made  a  conscious 
problem.  In  Method  I  the  suppressing  of  the  elabo- 
rate vocalization  is  accomplished  indirectly,  by  directly 
emphasizing  speed  in  reading.  Not  much  difference 
in  the  results  was  expected.  The  results  show  even 
less  than  was  expected. 

In  the  fourth  grade,  Type  I  shows  a  slight  superiority 
in  average  gain  —  4.1  words  per  minute  ;  in  grade  five 
the  advantage,  15.9  words  per  minute,  rests  with  Type  II. 
A  comparison  between  the  gains  made  by  a  number  of 
sixth-grade  pupils  using  Type  II  with  the  gains  made 


214  SILENT   READING 

by  a  number  of  seventh-grade  pupils  employing  Type  I 
shows  that,  in  point  of  absolute  gain,  Type  I  has  a  slight 
superiority  —  11.6  words  per  minute.  In  the  amount 
of  gain  made  over  the  corresponding  control  groups, 
however,  the  advantage,  14.9  words  per  minute,  rests 
with  Type  II.  These  results  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  the  two  types  of  training,  because  substantially  the 
same,  are  practically  equal  in  effectiveness. 

The  Growth  of  Speed  in  Silent  Reading  as  Shown  by  the 
Class  Charts 

The  measurement  of  the  increase  in  rate  in  this  study 
was  based  not  only  upon  the  results  of  the  Courtis 
Silent  Reading  Test,  but  also  upon  the  daily  class  charts. 
The  daily  progress  of  each  experimental  pupil  was  re- 
corded on  his  individual  graph  by  showing  the  average 
number  of  words  read  per  minute  during  the  total  read- 
ing period  on  each  day  of  the  training  period.  The 
median  rate  of  reading  for  each  day  was  placed  on  the 
class  chart,  which  thus  reflected  the  progress  of  the 
whole  class.  The  fact  that  the  class  chart  records  the 
progress  for  each  day,  enables  it  to  reflect  the  character 
of  the  growth  in  speed,  gradual  or  otherwise,  which 
the  three  Courtis  Tests  naturally  could  not  show. 

A  number  of  class  charts  showing  the  kinds  of  growth 
in  speed  are  presented  for  each  grade.  Graph  X,  show- 
ing the  progress  of  the  experimental  group  in  the  fourth 
grade  in  the  Lincoln  School  at  LaSalle,  reflects  a  fairly 
regular  growth.  The  only  appreciable  break  in  the 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


215 


continuity  of  advancement  occurs  during  approximately 
the  middle  of  the  training  period.  The  curve  of  im- 
provement shown  in  Graph  XI  reveals  considerably 
more  fluctuations.  Many  of  the  irregularities  in  the 
curve  can  be  explained  by  the  changes  in  the  subject 


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matter  to  be  read.  The  reading  books  on  which  the 
rates  of  speed  were  made  are  indicated  in  the  graph. 
The  median  growth  in  speed  for  the  seven  fourth-grade 
classes  comprising  117  pupils  is  shown  in  the  composite 
Graph  XII.  The  curves  are  smoothed  in  all  the 
graphs.  The  dots  represent  the  actual  averages  from 


216 


SILENT   READING 


which  the  curves  were  smoothed.  The  median  growth 
in  speed  for  the  fourth-grade  classes  is  on  the  whole 
quite  regular.  The  median  increase  is  from  163  words 
per  minute  to  310. 

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The  curves  of  progress  for  two  fifth-grade  classes 
are  shown  in  Graphs  XIII  and  XIV.  The  markedly 
irregular  curve  of  progress  in  the  latter  graph  contrasts 
with  the  general  smoothness  of  the  composite  chart 
shown  in  Graph  XV.  The  increase  is  somewhat  more 
marked  than  in  the  fourth  grade  —  being  from  183  to 
approximately  378  words  per  minute. 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


217 


In  the  curve  of  progress  at  St.  Mary's  School  as  shown 
in  Graph  XVI,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  growth  in  speed 
is  much  more  marked  in  the  latter  than  in  the  first  half 
of  the  training  period.  The  median  growth  of  three 


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sixth-grade  classes  is  shown  hi  the  composite  Graph 
XVTIL  The  curve  is  not  so  regular  as  in  the  previous 
composite  graphs. 

The  curves  in  Graphs  XIX  and  XX  manifest  minor 
fluctuations,  though  the  central  tendency  of  progress 
is  strongly  in  evidence.  The  composite  Graph  XXI 


218 


SILENT   READING 


showing  the  growth  of  seven  seventh-grade  classes 
comprising  119  pupils  displays  more  smoothness.  The 
increase  is  from  220  words  per  minute  to  approximately 
490.  In  the  composite  Graph  XXIII  of  the  three 

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graphs.  Moreover,  the  increase  is  consistent,  and 
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INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


219 


provement  might  not  continue  to  an  indefinite  extent 
if  the  practice  period  had  been  longer. 


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TABLE  XXVII.  GAIN  IN  COMPREHENSION  OF  THE  EXPERIMENTAL 
PUPILS  AS  DETERMINED  BY  THE  NUMBER  OF  QUESTIONS  CORRECTLY 
ANSWERED  IN  COURTIS  TESTS 


GRADE 

NUMBER  or 
PUPILS 

BEGINNING 

END 

GAIN 

IV    .... 

97 

23  9 

34.8 

10.9 

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47 

296 

42  1 

12.5 

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SILENT   READING 


TABLE  XXVIII.  COMPARISON  OF  GROWTH  OF  SPEED  IN  SILENT 
READING  OF  23  CLASSES  IN  DIFFERENT  GRADES,  AS  DETERMINED  BY 
THE  COURTIS  TESTS  WITH  THAT  RECORDED  ON  THE  CLASS  CHARTS 


BEGINNING 

END 

GAIN 

PEB  CENT 
OF  GAIN 

Courtis  Tests     .     .     . 

189 

295 

106 

56% 

Class  charts  .... 

228 

411 

183 

80% 

Table  XXVIII  is  to  be  read  thus :  At  the  beginning  of  the  training 
the  median  rate  of  speed  of  the  23  classes  as  determined  by  the  Courtis 
Tests  was  189  words  per  minute,  295  words  at  the  end  of  the  training. 
The  median  gain  in  number  of  words  per  minute  was  106,  the  median 
gain  in  per  cent  was  56%. 


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221 


222 


SILENT   READING 


TABLE  XXIX.  THE  AVERAGE  READING  RATE  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 
AT  THE  BEGINNING  AND  END  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT  AND  THE 
RELATIVE  AMOUNT  OF  GAIN 


.  BOYS 

GIRLS 

AVERAGE 
GAIN 

GIRLS'   SUPERI- 
ORITY IN 

No.  of 
Boys 

Begin- 
ning 

End 

No.  of 
Girls 

Begin- 
ning 

End 

Boys 

Girls 

Final 
Ave. 

Gain 

III     . 

12 

137 

231 

11 

152 

254 

94 

102 

23 

8 

IV       . 

49 

144 

220 

53 

157 

234 

76 

77 

4 

1 

V    .    . 

27 

154 

276 

22 

170 

266 

122 

96 

-10 

-26 

VI       . 

19 

192 

288 

32 

196 

289 

96 

93 

1 

-3 

VII      . 

38 

195 

315 

64 

210 

326 

120 

116 

11 

-4 

VIII    . 

21 

228 

435 

24 

211 

351 

207 

140 

-84 

-67 

Table  XXIX  is  to  be  read  for  grade  3  as  follows :  12  boys  had  an  av- 
erage rate  of  137  words  per  minute  at  the  beginning  of  the  training,  231 
words  at  the  end ;  11  girls  averaged  152  at  beginning,  254  at  end ;  boys' 
gain  was  94  words  per  minute,  the  girls'  was  102 ;  the  superiority  of  the 
girls'  final  average  over  the  boys'  final  average  was  23,  the  girls'  superior- 
ity in  gain  over  the  boys  was  8  words  per  minute. 

Table  XXVII  compares  the  median  rate  of  speed  of 
23  classes  in  various  grades  as  determined  by  the  Courtis 
Reading  Test  with  that  shown  by  the  class  charts. 
The  table  shows  that  the  amount  of  increase  in  speed 
as  recorded  on  the  class  cKarts  for  the  different  grades 
is  greater  than  that  manifested  by  the  Courtis  Tests. 
This  is  due  to  the  greater  stimulation,  the  greater 
pressure,  that  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  pupils 
in  the  regular  daily  training  in  rapid  reading.  The 
pressure  of  the  individual  graph  and  of  the  class 
chart  was  not  applied  to  the  reading  of  the  Courtis 
Test. 

In  Graph  XXIV  are  shown  the  rates  of  all  the  grades 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  223 


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224 


SILENT    BEADING 


at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of  the  experimental 
training  as  recorded  on  the  class  chart.  The  shaded 
blocks  in  the  graph  call  attention  to  the  amount  of 
gain  in  rate  made  by  the  different  grades. 

In  short,  the  results  of  the  class  charts  offer  a  rather 

/I/O      *    1/7(7 


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striking  corroboration  of  the  general  conclusions  drawn 
from  the  data  afforded  by  the  Courtis  Test. 

Correlation  of  Rate  of  Reading  with  Simple  Reaction 
Time  and  Discrimination  Reaction  Time 

The  attempt  was  made  in  the  present  investigation 
to  ascertain  the  correlation  between  the  reading  rate 
and  the  rates  of  simple  motor  reaction  and  discrimina- 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


225 


tion  reaction.  The  test  for  simple  reaction  was  the 
cancellation  test  A-3  described  by  Whipple  in  his 
Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical  Tests.  As  used  in 
this  experiment,  the  pupils  were  requested  to  cross 
out  all  the  geometrical  figures,  instead  of  only  certain 
ones.  The  discrimination  reaction  test  called  for  the 


s 

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canceling  of  only  the  numeral  9  in  lines  containing  va- 
rious digits.  These  tests  were  administered  to  the 
pupils  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  grades  in  the  Goodrich 
School,  whose  rates  of  reading  had  been  previously 
measured  by  the  Courtis  Test. 

The   correlation  between   the   rate  of  reading  and 
simple  motor  reaction  was  found  to  be  rather  low  — 


226 


SILENT    READING 


r  being  .214  for  the  fourth  grade  and  .228  for  the  fifth. 
The  coefficient  of  correlation  between  the  rate  of  read- 


600 
710 
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ing  and  the  rate  of  discrimination  reaction  was  com- 
puted for  the  pupils  of  the  fourth  grade.  The  correla- 
tion in  this  case  was  found  to  be  somewhat  higher  — 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


227 


r  being  .435.  On  the  whole,  the  coefficients  are  too  low 
to  indicate  the  existence  of  any  very  significant  positive 
correlation  between  the  reading  rate  and  the  rate 


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of  either  simple  motor  or  discriminatory  reaction, 
though  the  correlation  is  certainly  more  in  evidence 
in  the  latter  case. 


228 


SILENT    READING 


The  Work  Curve  for  One  Reading  Period 

Besides  determining  the  average  number  of  words 
read  per  minute  by  each  pupil  for  each  of  the  total 
reading  periods  of,  say,  20  or  25  minutes  during  the 


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experiment,  two  days  were  specified  on  which  more 
detailed  measurements  were  requested.  The  pupils 
were  asked  to  record  the  number  of  words  read  per 
minute  during  each  of  the  several  briefer  stretches 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS 


229 


constituting  the  total  reading  period  for  the  day. 
This  was  done  in  an  effort  to  determine  the  daily  work 
curve  for  reading. 

A  study  of  the  work  curves  of  the  various  classes 
shows  there  is  no  uniform  type  of  curve.     Variability 


— 

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m. 

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Coo-sectlfiit* 


is  the  striking  characteristic.  In  some  classes,  pupils 
read  at  maximal  rate  in  the  middle  stretches,  in  others, 
toward  the  end,  while  in  still  other  classes,  pupils 
reached  their  highest  rate  in  the  second  and  third 
stretches.  These  results  would  seem  to  support  the 


230 


SILENT   READING 


conclusion  of  Thorndike  that  there  is  no  uniform  type 
of  work  curve,  with  clearly  defined  characteristics,  re- 


showing    tfoe     A  vera$e  number 
of    Words   J3ea<J  per  PtJp/7  £>e/ore   av</  after    Train/' 06  // 
radej  /V  to     VIII  aj    </e  term  wet/  &     "the  ina/'t//ac/a/ 


eoa 


VIII 


vealing  the  successive  occurrence  of   "  initial  spurt," 
"warming-up"  (vinregrwngr),aadaptation"  (Gewohnung), 


INTERPRETATION   OF   RESULTS  231 

and  the  other  processes  which  Rivers  and  Kraepelin, 
and  especially  Offner,  have  predicated  of  work  curves 
in  general. 

The  Factor  of  Sex 

Table  XXIX  shows  that  the  average  rate  of  the 
girls  is  slightly  higher  than  that  of  the  boys.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  training  the  average  rate  for  the  girls 
was  higher  in  every  grade  except  the  eighth  ;  at  the  end 
of  the  training  in  every  grade  save  the  eighth  and  the 
fifth.  In  amount  of  gain  as  a  result  of  the  training 
the  boys  somewhat  surpassed  the  girls.  The  training 
in  rapid  reading  was  rather  intensive  and  somewhat 
strenuous  and  it  is  possible  that  the  neuro-muscular 
system  of  the  boys  enabled  them  to  profit  by  it  slightly 
more  than  the  girls.  Both  sexes,  however,  showed  very 
marked  gains  in  rate  in  all  the  grades  and  the  differences 
in  the  amount  of  gain  made  by  the  two  sexes  are  too 
slight  to  be  of  any  special  significance. 


CHAPTER  X 

PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS 
DURING  READING 

A  STANDARDIZED  silent  reading  test  is  doubtless 
capable  of  measuring  the  rate  of  reading  satisfactorily. 
It  can  determine  the  increase  or  decrease  in  speed 
effected  in  a  given  time.  Behind  that  simple  factual 
statement,  however,  a  reading  test  does  not  penetrate. 
It  tells  nothing  about  the  factors  which  lie  behind 
that  increase  or  decrease  in  rate  —  nothing  about  the 
causes  —  proximate  or  remote.  In  the  present  in- 
vestigation an  effort  was  made  to  penetrate  behind  the 
simple  determination  of  increase  in  speed,  as  shown 
by  the  Courtis  Silent  Reading  Test  and  the  individual 
charts,  into  the  nature  of  the  modifications  of  the  physi- 
ological factors  which  accompanied  the  increase  in  rate. 
In  other  words,  how  is  an  increase  in  speed  to  be  ex- 
plained in  terms  of  the  physiological  processes  con- 
stituting the  reading  complex  ? 

Is  the  habit  of  increased  speed  achieved  chiefly  by 
the  shortening  of  the  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses? 
Or  by  a  lessening  of  their  number  ?  Or  by  a  combina- 
tion of  both  these  results?  This  Schmidt  (18)  char- 

232 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS     233 

acterizes  as  one  of  the  "interesting,  but  as  yet  unsolved 
problems"  in  the  psychology  of  reading.  What, 
moreover,  are  the  changes  in  the  character  of  the  eye- 
movements  of  an  individual  who  has  developed  from 
a  slow  to  a  rapid  reader?  Have  the  movements  be- 
come more  regular  and  rhythmical,  or  the  opposite? 
Has  the  acquirement  of  the  habit  of  increased  speed 
resulted  in  an  increase  in  the  number  of  regressive 
movements  —  which  are  signs  of  mental  confusion  — 
or  have  they  decreased  ?  Is  the  rate  of  the  inter-fixa- 
tion movements  and  the  interlinear  "sweeps"  affected 
by  the  habit  of  increased  speed  in  reading? 

These  are  some  of  the  interesting  questions  which 
have  been  broached  in  recent  studies* in  the  technical 
psychology  of  reading.  In  the  present  investigation 
the  attempt  was  made  to  secure,  some  data  for  the 
formulation  of  at  least  tentative  answers  to  the  above 
queries. 

For  this  purpose,  photographic  records  were  taken 
of  the  eye-movements  of  ten  pupils  while  they  were 
engaged  in  silent  reading.  These  ten  pupils,  five  boys 
and  five  girls,  representing  various  degrees  of  silent 
reading  ability,  were  selected  from  the  classes  in  the 
Goodrich,  Hendricks,  and  Manierre  schools  in  Chicago, 
which  were  receiving  training  in  rapid  reading  as  out- 
lined in  Type  I  and  Type  II.  The  elaborate  photo- 
graphic apparatus,  the  evolution  of  which  was  men- 
tioned in  Chapter  I,  and  which  has  been  recently 
improved  upon  by  Judd,  C.  T.  Gray,  Freeman,  Schmidt, 


234  SILENT   READING 

and  others  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  was  used  in 
this  connection.  Records  were  taken  both  before  and 
after  the  training  in  rapid  reading. 

PLATE   I.    SILENT   READING   BY  A.   P.,   A    FOURTH-GRADE    SUBJECT 
—  BEFORE   TRAINING 

'        »•         3  S  M.  10  «T  (i       tO     It  f         //  H 

hfh^n  I  fiave  t|ie)n  a]|,   "he  sjiid,   "I'jl  l|eaTJe|this|  | 
?     g        IJ          175        I'  *x  S     io    107        *7 

a,/JTjf*7          sr  q      to  n 

dirty  jwaierj  and  goj  up  int$  the  oj-chclrd.     What      I 

Vi     10  li  8    x        a  n        /3  aty    I0  '  ' 

»  ^  ^    '  S        L        7  <?       g    10      ||      M      /L  l^f 

flwj  ijb  frffll  b^  to  hop  andlhopjanp  hop,     If  elnl^  I 
lol»7   4  13       '*       «  li      7     5      J3       k      I*   1+ 

a    a.  +   I       J-          t        8     1  7    <o  /I  jx 

|  hjidja  |lit^le  brother]  toj  h|op  Jwith  mej  I  should  ^>e 
(if  4   4      •        i*      /o    ii  x    i/  if  u 

i       ' 

I so  happy." 
aS         (I 

X  indicates  that  it  was  impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  duration  of  the 
fixation-pause.  The  vertical  lines  indicate  the  position  of  the  eye's  fixation;  the 
numbers  at  the  top  of  the  line  show  the  order  in  which  the  fixations  occurred.  The 
numbers  at  the  bottom  of  the  line  give  the  duration  of  each  fixation  in  fiftieths  of  a 
second.  Thus  Plate  I  is  to  be  read :  The  first  fixation  occurred  on  the  quotation 
mark  (')  before  the  word  "when";  its  duration  was  A  of  a  second;  the  second 
fixation  was  on  the  letter  "  e  "  in  the  word  "  when  "  ;  its  duration  was  A  of  a  second. 

In  order  that  comparisons  might  properly  be  made 
between  the  eye-movement  records  of  pupils  in  differ- 
ent grades,  it  was  necessary  to  secure  subject  matter 
which  was  adjusted  to  the  comprehension  of  the  differ- 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS     235 

ent  grades,  and  which  was  of  approximately  equal 
difficulty  for  the  pupils  in  each  grade.  The  selections 
in  Gray's  Silent  Reading  Test  —  Tiny  Tad,  The  Grass- 
hoppers, Ancient  Ships  —  having  been  carefully  evalu- 
ated as  to  their  degree  of  difficulty,  proved  well  suited 

PLATE   II.     SILENT  READING   BY  A.    P.,   A   FOURTH-GRADE    SUBJECT 
—  AFTER  TRAINING 

"ThejsW  TOs  harBli  up  flhe  next  iorni^g  when  k 
fyfcit  fy         jT>        ?o  if        8  * 

W*          *       s 
jumped  out  if  thelwatelr  and  h 
;  "          9        9 

olt  on  the  (bank.     Hi  was  very]  small,  but  InorU 
|V  i  1T4  l»  V     7 

I  JL  J          -ff 

too  enkll  for  his  littlejlegs  that  wibblfcd  under 
iV  //  J  -*• 

him.     It  iris  Tfii(y>  the  yolng  toad."/ 
/I    ?     ?tu  i? 

X  indicstes  that  it  WM  impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  duration  of  th. 
fixation-pause. 

for  this  purpose.  Different  passages  in  the  various 
selections  were  used  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end 
of  the  training,  so  that,  in  no  case,  was  the  complicat- 
ing factor  of  special  familiarity  with  the  specific  subject 
matter  introduced.  The  instructions  given  to  the 


236  SILENT   READING 

pupils  before  reading  Gray's  test  at  the  beginning  and 
at  the  end  of  the  training  period  were  substantially 
the  ones  which  preface  every  standardized  silent  read- 
ing test  —  "  Read  only  as  rapidly  as  you  can  under- 
stand what  you  are  reading." 

The  situation  hi  which  the  pupils  read  while  their 
eye-movements  were  being  photographed  was  naturally 
considerably  different  from  the  one  to  which  they  were 
accustomed  in  the  classroom.  The  room  was  darkened, 
the  selection  alone  being  illuminated .  A  ray  of  light  was 
reflected  into  the  subject's  eyes,  thence  into  the  lenses 
of  the  camera.  The  head  of  the  subject  was  prevented 
from  moving  by  means  of  a  headrest.  The  latter  had 
four  points  of  contact  —  one  at  the  forehead,  one  at 
the  back,  and  two  at  the  cheeks.  After  it  was  ad- 
justed, the  subjects  did  not  find  it  especially  disturbing. 
A  few  of  the  younger  subjects  seemed  to  find  the  situ- 
ation quite  amusing,  as  shown  by  their  smiles. 


I.   EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  FOURTH-GRADE 
SUBJECTS  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 

1.   A  Slow  Fourth-Grade  Reader 

Plate  I  shows  the  record  of  A.  P.  before  receiving 
the  experimental  training.  A.  P.  is  a  ten-year-old 
boy  in  the  fourth  grade  in  the  Goodrich  School.  His 
general  class  average  is  rated  by  the  teacher  as  "fair," 
his  oral  reading  as  "poor."  His  rate  in  silent  reading 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS     237 

was  only  73  words  per  minute  as  measured  by  the 
Courtis  Silent  Reading  Test ;  his  comprehension  was 
very  low.  He  ranked  among  the  lowest  in  his  class 
in  both  rate  and  comprehension.  He  is  of  foreign-born 
parentage.  His  father  does  not  speak  English,  though 
his  mother  does. 

The  record  in  Plate  I  reflects  very  clearly  the  physi- 
ological factors  back  of  the  pupil's  deficiency  in  reading. 
The  number  of  fixations  is  excessively  large  ;  regressive 
movements  are  too  numerous.  Not  a  single  line  is 
without  them.  They  show  traces  of  unmistakable 
confusion  in  the  interpretation  of  the  printed  symbols. 
They  indicate  that  the  reader  was  obliged  to  go  back 
frequently  to  previous  words  in  order  to  get  the  mean- 
ing of  the  present  word  or  phrase.  Regular  rhythmical 
eye-movement  habits  are  conspicuous  by  their  ab- 
sence. The  visual  span  is  very  narrow.  Thus,  in 
line  2,  the  short  word  "water"  receives  three  fixa- 
tions. In  line  3  there  are  four  backward  or  regres- 
sive movements. 

The  record  in  Plate  II  for  A.  P.  after  training  shows 
considerable  improvement  over  the  subject's  previous 
performance.  Two  months  of  the  experimental  train- 
ing of  Type  II  had  effected  a  marked  increase  in  speed. 
His  record  on  the  Courtis  Test  showed  that  he  had 
more  than  doubled  his  rate,  while  his  comprehension 
had  likewise  improved.  The  amount  of  pressure  that 
was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  pupils  to  increase  their 
rate  in  the  regular  reading  period  in  the  school  was 


238  SILENT   READING 

naturally  not  applied  to  their  reading  before  the  camera. 
Under  the  novel  circumstances  under  which  the  latter 
was  done,  and  the  very  brief  interval  allowed,  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  the  subjects  did  not  reach  as  rapid 
a  pace  as  they  did  in  reading  the  Courtis  Test  under 
normal  classroom  conditions.  Nevertheless,  the  second 
record  of  A.  P.'s  reading  shows  that  the  training 
had  produced  a  marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  fixa- 
tion-pauses per  line,  as  well  as  a  decrease  in  the  number 
of  regressive  movements  from  17  to  9  —  a  decrease  of 
almost  50%. 

Table  XXX  gives  a  detailed  comparison  of  the  two 
complete  records  of  A.  P.'s  reading.  Only  samples 
of  the  complete  record  were  presented  in  Plates  I 
and  II. 

The  decrease  in  the  average  number  of  fixation-pauses 
from  11.7  to  7.8  per  line  —  a  decrease  of  almost  4  per 
line  —  is  probably  the  most  striking  modification  in 
the  motor  behavior  of  the  eyes  which  the  photographic 
records  evince.  It  shows  clearly  that  the  experimental 
training  was  effective  in  widening  the  visual  span  which 
functioned  in  the  pupil's  reading.  The  teacher  reports 
that  the  interest  displayed  by  this  subject  in  training 
was  "intense."  At  the  beginning  of  the  training,  his 
silent  reading  was  accompanied  by  elaborate  lip-move- 
ment. After  about  one  month's  training,  the  lip 
movement  disappeared.  Throat-movements  persisted 
for  about  two  weeks  longer,  after  which  time  they 
could  no  longer  be  detected  by  the  teacher.  The  data 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      239 

from  the  photographic  records,  the  Courtis  Test,  the 
individual  chart,  and  the  teacher's  observations  —  all 
combine  to  show  that  the  training  of  Type  II  proved 
very  effective  in  improving  the  reading  ability  of  this 
subject  to  a  marked  degree. 


TABLE  XXX.  COMPARISON  OP  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  A 
FOURTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  A.  P.  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 
IN  RAPID  READING 


LINK 

NUMBER  OF 
PAUSES 

AVERAGEDURA- 
TION  OF  PAUSE 

AGGREGATE 
DURATION  or 
PAUSE 

NUMBER  or 
REGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENT* 

Record 

Record 

Record 

Record 

I 

II 

I 

II 

I 

II 

I 

II 

1     

8 
9 
15 
13 
11 
14 
12 

9 
18 
8 
12 
10 
6 
7 
4 
6 

13.0 

14.4 
12.3 
11.7 
16.0 
12.5 
12.9 

10.9 
12.5 
15.8 
12.8 
13.3 
10.0 
11.3 
17.0 
15.3 

104 
130 
185 
152 
176 
175 
155 

98 
100 
126 
153 
133 
60 
79 
68 
92 

1 
1 

3 
3 
2 
4 
3 

0 
0 

1 
2 
2 
0 
1 
0 
2 

2    

3    

4    

5    .... 

6    

7    .... 

8    .... 

9    .     . 

Total.    .     .     . 
Average  .     .     . 

82 
11.7 

70 

7.8 

92.8 
13.1 

118.9 
13.0 

1077 
13.1 

909 
13.0 

17 
2.4 

9 
1.0 

Table  XXX  should  be  read  for  line  1  as  follows :  In  the  first  record 
there  were  8  fixations,  in  the  second,  9.  The  average  duration  of  the  fixa- 
tion-pauses in  the  first  record  was  13  fiftieths  of  a  second,  in  the  second 
record,  10.9  fiftieths ;  the  aggregate  duration  was  104  fiftieths  of  a  second 
in  the  first  record,  98  fiftieths  in  the  second  record.  There  was  one  re- 
gressive movement  in  the  first  record,  none  in  the  second  record. 


240  SILENT   READING 


PLATE   III.      SILENT    READING    BY    FOURTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,    N.   C. 
—  BEFORE   TRAINING 

\  v  3      Y     *    r 

Tiny  Tad  -was  ft  queer  j.ittle  fello^  irijth  ^nljsr 


two  legs  arjd  a  sijort  tjail.       He  iros  (nearly  bl^ok, 

too,  and  i^uclj  smaller  tljan  most  tcjdijoleq  in|  the 

',  i          ^       ±  f  J        1 

big  pond*  I    Ee  coi|ld  hardly  tfedt  fof  his  fy-ont/  legs 

t   ^ 
to  grcJ»»J 

"When  I  h^v«  then)  all,  lj|e  saidj  ."I'll  lesjr 
dirty  frater  anc|  go  up  jlnto  the  {orchard.       Wfat 
fun  it  iri|l]t)e  tojhopjand  hop  a|d|hop.  j  If  only  f 
had  a  Ii^t|e|tjroth4r  to  hc£>  with  ^e,  I  should)  ?e 


so 

Only  the  fixation-positions  are  marked.     The  subject  was  not  in  the  exact  focus, 
the  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses  could  not  be  determined. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS    241 

PLATE   IV.    SILENT   READING  BY  FOURTH-GRADE   SUBJECT.  N.  C. — 
AFTER  TRAINING 

It  hrasn't  loKg  before  tis  legd  begai  to]  grow. 
15  >'i  12.  f          I*    j 

/  a.       J  4 

He  jumped  about  and  kiokkd  around  until  hit 
iL  83  * 

o.  /  tL     f     j  4 

legs  grew  quite!  strong.       nl  tea.  goinfe  out  oi{  tht 
\        n  jT  ?     IT  ff 

tank  ti  sie  if  |l  can  hop"  he  said  one  rtight  fhen 
?     7         8  13        I* 

/  3          4       a.  |  f 

he  was  jukt]  six  wfeeksj  old* 

II  8  i  o     i  +  1  * 

i.        /  Jl  * 

The  sun  ias  hardly  up  the  next  mornidg  when  I  a 
i  o       i  o  I  * 

i       31  t  f 

little  toejd  jxraped  out  of  the  water  *nd  hopped 

fli     ^9  *  • 

out  on)  the  iank.f   He  was]  very  small,  (but  hone 
"o         I        9  **  l»      I* 

L  /  3  |      ,f 

too  4mall  tor  his  little  lets  that  wobbled]  un<|er 
f!j         «  T  '<     " 

him.     It  w^is  Tiny,  the  youn£  toad. 

X  indicates  that  it  was  impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  duration  at  UM 
fixation-pause. 


242  SILENT   READING 

2.  Record  of  a  Rapid  Fourth-Grade  Reader 

Plate  III  shows  the  record  of  N.  C.  before  training. 
N.  C.  is  a  nine-year-old  girl  in  the  fourth  grade  in  the 
Goodrich  School.  The  teacher  reports  that  her  general 
class  average  and  her  reading  ability  are  "excellent." 
Her  rate  of  reading  as  measured  by  the  Courtis  Test  was 
267  words  per  minute ;  her  comprehension  score  was  75 
per  cent.  The  test  confirmed  the  teacher's  judgment 
and  showed  that  the  subject  was,  by  far,  the  fastest 
reader  in  her  class.  She  is  of  foreign-born  parentage ; 
her  father  speaks  English  but  her  mother  does  not. 
Her  advancement  through  the  grades  has  been  normal. 
The  subject  manifested  great  interest  in  the  experi- 
mental training. 

The  record  in  Plate  III  shows  that  N.  C.  is  a  superior 
type  of  reader  for  a  fourth-grade  pupil.  The  subject 
averages  but  7.1  fixation-pauses  per  line.  The  regres- 
sive movements  are  not  numerous,  averaging  but  1.1 
per  line.  There  is  a  fair  degree  of  regularity  and 
rhythm  to  the  eye-movements,  indicating  a  rapid  rate 
on  the  part  of  the  reader.  Contrast  Plate  III  with 
Plate  I,  and  the  superiority  of  N.  C.  over  A.  P.  in  prac- 
tically every  aspect  of  the  reading  process  is  made 
strikingly  manifest. 

Plate  IV  shows  that  N.  C.  despite  her  high  initial 
ability  also  profited  by  the  training  in  Type  II.  There 
is  a  decrease  in  the  total  number  of  fixation-pauses  for 
the  8  complete  lines  in  both  records  from  57  to  41  — 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      243 


an  average  decrease  of  2  fixation-pauses  per  line.  The 
perceptual  span  has  been  widened  so  that  it  grasps 
a  larger  number  of  printed  symbols  in  a  single  fixation. 
Thus,  lines  2  and  6  are  each  grasped  in  4  fixations, 
while  the  best  performance  on  the  previous  record 
(Plate  III)  was  the  perception  of  line  2  in  5  fixations. 
The  minimum  for  the  other  lines  is  6,  which  is  the  maxi- 
mum number  of  fixations  required  to  read  any  line  in 
Plate  IV.  An  improvement  in  regularity  and  rhythm 
of  eye-movement  habits  is  also  clearly  noticeable. 
The  Courtis  Test  likewise  showed  an  increase  in  speed 
and  a  gain  of  7  per  cent  in  comprehension. 

TABLE  XXXI.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  or  A 
FOURTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  N.  C.,  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING  IN 
RAPID  READING 


Ion 

NUMBER  OF 
PAUSES 

DURATION  or 
PAUSES 

NUMBER  or 
REGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENTS 

Record 

Record  n 

Raooid 

I 

n 

Average 

.\Ker<-cMr 

I 

n 

1    

6 
5 
8 
7 
6 
6 
10 
9 

6 
4 
6 
5 
4 
5 
6 
5 

13.2 
9.3 
8.7 
9.2 
11.0 
9.4 
11.2 
12.0 

79 
37 
52 
46 
44 
47 
67 
60 

1 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
3 
3 
2 

0 
0 
2 
2 

1 
1 
3 
1 
0 

2    

3     

4     

5     

6     

7    

8    

9    

Total  
Average  .... 

57 
7.1 

41 
5.1 

84 
10.5 

432 
10.5 

10 
1.1 

10 
1.1 

244  SILENT   READING 

PLATE  V.    SILENT   READING   BY   FOURTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,   M.   L.  — 
BEFORE  TRAINING 

fc     JL      >,<•/   L  f  8  Q         ft 

Tiny  fadTWllaj  dueer  little  ffellorr  hrithj  only 
5    I    nffcrt         '*  '•*•         *       '3 

'        ^  ?  "I          f        i*          ?         f  ? 

I  two  (legs  and  ajsltort  tail •)  He  wjis  nearly  bljusk, 

'        *4  f      f         4        7    f    ?  'i* 

toi,  and  muqh  amallef  than  nbst  tadpoles  in] the 

,V       TTl  7f    A         7f        f    A    f  T 

i         *        y  -i      f   k      1      t       3 

bid  pond*    I He  could  hardlV  vlit  for  his I front  legs 
Ter          ,'a  J    »fo        ft         /V       fV  ? 


|  to  grow. 


"wken  I  hiive  thlm  All ,  Phi  said/'  I'll  liave  this 

2o       "4      JT      V*|       ft        5     7 

i/j^r        fcPT  ?         _j° 

dirty  initer  1  arid  io  up  k.nto[tne  orchard*      fliat 
»^      rt   /7  ft        F      *    V  x> 

/JX^rfc  7  »  ^/,« 

fun  ii  will  (be;  to  iop  fend  hop  land  hod ,     If  onlj/  I), 

/7    /|     iVf        »V     f  t*          '«  i^     * 

/ijfjr  1^7?  ?'* 

had  la  liltje  bfothir  to  hop  4-th  V».   I  ohouM  be  I 
T 


1  ' 

so  hWr.1 
f  Co 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      245 


PLATE  VI.     SILENT    READING    BY    FOURTH-GRADE    SUBJECT,    M.   L. 
—  AFTER  TRAINING 


It  wasn't  |ong|beforj  >{is  l^gs  fbfgan/ijol 
He  jumped  about  a|id  kicked)  aroufd  uijtil  jhie 
legs  iref»  duite  strong.       "I  aja  goipg  <|ut  ]pn  the 

bank  to|  see|  if  I  oaji  hfp"  he  sifid  one  ni|ht  jrhen 

'  ^ 

he  wa«  just  six  neekjs  old* 

'  ^        *  I  fi  t 

The  su(i  fa«  h|rdly  up  f(he  next/  morning/  when  a 

f  V  3  ^  ^ 

little  t  jafl  junpef  out  of  t^e  watef  and  h(>pped 

out  on  (the  banlj          4  **•!  T*r>r'  "all»  P**  f01* 

'         V       4  *         f  £  ? 

fcnall  ]  f  or  ]ii«  littl^  legal  that  wobbled  unfer 


too 


/         2        i  If 

Ida*      It  |as  ^-inj,  the  ' 

Only  the  fixation-positions  are  marked.     The  subject  wa»  not  in  the  er»ct  focus, 
the  duration  of  the  pauses  could  not  be  determined. 


246  SILENT   READING 

Table  XXXI  presents  the  figures  for  a  detailed  com- 
parison of  the  two  records  of  N.  C. 

3.  Record  of  a  Fourth-Grade  Subject  of  Medium  Ability 
in  Silent  Reading 

Plate  V  shows  the  record  of  M.  L.  before  training. 
M.  L.  is  a  nine-year-old  girl  in  the  fourth  grade  in  the 
Hendricks  School.  Her  reading  ability  is  "fairly  good." 
She  stands  apparently  midway  between  the  two  pre- 
vious fourth-grade  subjects.  Her  rate  in  the  Courtis 
Test  is  136  words  per  minute ;  her  comprehension  is 
good.  Her  parents  are  native-born.  She  manifested 
very  great  interest  in  the  training  —  Type  I. 

The  record  in  Plate  V  shows  a  type  of  fourth-grade 
reader  that  might  be  classed  as  "fair."  It  is  not 
nearly  so  poor  as  the  initial  record  of  A.  P.  (Plate  I), 
nor  nearly  so  good  as  the  initial  record  of  N.  C.  (Plate 
III).  There  is  an  average  of  9.5  fixations  per  line,  with 
an  average  duration  of  11.3  fiftieths  of  a  second  per 
fixation-pause.  Considering  the  number  of  fixations 
per  line,  the  number  of  regressive  movements  are  not 
numerous,  averaging  but  1  per  line.  Compare  this 
record  (Plate  V)  with  either  of  N.  C.  's  records,  and  the 
excessively  large  number  of  fixation-pauses  in  M.  L.'s 
reading  becomes  plainly  evident.  Improvement  in 
reading  rate  would  obviously  seem  to  lie  in  the  direction 
of  a  reduction  of  the  number  of  fixations  per  line. 
There  is  room  for  improvement  also  in  the  irregular, 
unrhythmical  character  of  the  eye-movement  habits. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      247 

The  record  in  Plate  VI  shows  that  this  is  precisely 
what  happened  in  the  previous  record.  The  reduction 
in  the  number  of  fixation-pauses  is  rather  striking. 
From  a  total  of  76  fixations  for  the  8  full  lines  on  record 
V  the  number  for  the  8  full  lines  on  record  VI  is  reduced 
to  58.  This  means  an  average  reduction  of  2.3  fixation- 
pauses  per  line.  With  the  exception  of  line  1  on  record 
VI,  in  which  the  subject  evidently  suffered  from  a  poor 
start,  the  maximum  number  of  fixations  for  any  line  is 
8,  which  is  the  minimum  number  of  fixations  for  any 
line  in  the  subject's  previous  record. 

Table  XXXII  presents  the  data  contained  in  Plates 
V  and  VI  in  tabular  form. 


TABLE  XXXII.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  or  A 
FOURTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  M.  L.  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 
IN  RAPID  READING 


LOT 

NUMBER  or 
PAUSES 

DURATION  OF 
PAUSES 

NUMBER  or  REGRES- 
SIVE MOVEMENTS 

Record 

RecordI 

Record 

I 

II 

Average 

Aggregate 

I 

II 

1     

10 
9 
10 
9 
8 
10 
10 
10 

11 
7 
8 
7 
6 
5 
7 
7 

8.5 
8.7 
12.1 
10.3 
15.5 
10.9 
13.8 
11.1 

85 
78 
121 
93 
124 
109 
138 
111 

2 
1 

0 

1 

0 
2 
1 
1 

2 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

2     

3     

4     

5     

6     

7     

8     

Total  

76 
9.5 

58 
7.2 

90.9 
11.3 

859 
11.3 

8 
1.0 

3 
0.4 

Average  .... 

248  SILENT   READING 

PLATE  VII.      SILENT    READING  BY    FIFTH-GRADE    SUBJECT,  G.   B. — 
BEFORE   TRAINING 

Hl        '        f        '  ? 

a^shopjJere  )were  (anong  Jthe  •worst 

eniaiee  of  thq  early] settlers  ofJNebraska. 

!?r        ii     a          tV 

Theit  Ihotoee  nejre  of  the  (high  tlailis  and 

7rJTF     a    iV      n      «     * 

•noil  ijhe  hljlB  a|  tlj»  foot  of  the  kreai  moLi- 

v  /     J  r        «         1  7 

•Ulna  4  ih«  M^>    Hire  «hey  Ulved  and  r^sed 
Or       iV  f'        Ts      >       T  7» 


their 

i.'7    fr 

In  dry  seajsona  theqe  were  moije  ohiliref  and 

lejse  fdod  at  hole.     Than  they)  assembled  and 
rf       ?x  |T  ;W    7         7< 

1       '         *     •?   f  f  i*      r 

flew  iway  [in  g^eatf  nrarms  ^oj the]  east  and  to 
•J       h     7i     H  V          i«-'      i" 


J  *          f 

the  efutH.       They  tjraveled  huldrede  of  miles. 

*  t1!  i^       i'r 


on  olfal  we^n  nooplightj  nights 

they  trkre]|Bd  ah.1  righi.      More  loftpn  thW  settled 
i*      ie     ii     ft  i»    /«        a 

do*n|latl  il  the  afterncjon  and  fed,  and  then 
4      >  Tt  to  (V 

oontinuep  theltj  waty  |  the  next  day. 
Ulf          t»    iTU- 

X  indicates  that  it  was  impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  duration  of  the 
fixation-pause. 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      249 

"LATE  V1IL    SILENT   READING    BY   FIFTH-GRADE   SUBJECT.   G.   B.  — 
AFTER  TRAINING 

/  1     f    3    4       k 

All  the  ccjrn  -was  eat 4n  Jin |a| single  day. 
x.  JLO  X    "   r    /o 

TThere  [sofrnfields  stjood  at  sunrise  nothing  re* 
J^U.  7     I T  If  Y 

I  -  ^     4      7  «*  «**          f      ? 

mained  at  I  night  but]  stumps  of  sttlks  smarming 
l'7^A         >         ^    V  F  IT        ie 

/        x         j  1  t         f 

•with  hLngi4  hopplers  strlggline  for!  the  last 
n      5        10  is        ft      n 

/  i.  j  74^S'4 

biije.     Thejy  striked  the]  |ard^n| patches  bare. 

i    /  j  <f  f 

They  eiia4red  ereat  holes  in  the  fugs  and  car- 
«?<  V  /V          /  T  " 

pets  put  out  to  savje  favorite  plants.     Tpe  buds 
andTfruilb  of  trees  weri  consumed.    [They  fol- 

»V      ^    ro  r]t  & 

lo-wedlthe  plotatotes  arid  Anio^a  into  the  ground. 

*|  -  I  ^        I  *  %    ft 

X  indicates  that  it  was  impossible  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  duration  of  the 
fixation-pause. 


250 


SILENT   READING 


The  reduction  in  the  number  of  regressive  movements 
is  not  less  noticeable  than  the  reduction  in  the  number 
of  fixation-pauses.  From  a  total  of  8,  the  number  of 
regressive  movements  drops  to  3.  Record  VI  shows 
likewise  the  development  of  a  habit  of  greater  uni- 
formity and  rhythm  in  the  character  of  the  eye-move- 
ments. The  results  of  the  Courtis  Test,  in  which  the 
subject  reached  a  rate  of  284  words  per  minute,  with 
very  good  comprehension,  harmonize  with  the  story 
told  by  the  photographic  record  —  a  "higher  order  of 
eye-movement  habits"  was  built  up  by  the  training 
to  replace  the  lower  order  habits  of  eye-movements 
with  which  the  subject  began. 

TABLE  XXXIII.     COMPARISON  OP  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF 
A  FIFTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  G.  B.  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 


LINE 

NUMBER  or 
PAUSES 

AVERAGE 
DURATION  OF 
PAUSE 

AGGREGATE 
DURATION  OF 
PAUSE 

NUMBER  OF 
REGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENTS 

Record 

Record 

Record 

Record 

I 

II 

I 

n 

I 

n 

I 

n 

1       .... 

7 

6 

12.1 

73 

2 

1 

2      .... 

4 

6 

19.5 

16.3 

78 

98 

0 

1 

3      .... 

8 

9 

13.4 

10.7 

107 

96 

1 

3 

4      .... 

8 

6 

9.4 

13.3 

75 

80 

2 

1 

5      .... 

7 

8 

11.9 

12.9 

83 

103 

2 

1 

6      .... 

5 

5 

10.2 

19.0 

51 

95 

1 

1 

7      .... 

6 

3 

13.3 

14.3 

80 

43 

2 

0 

8      .... 

8 

5 

11.8 

14.2 

94 

71 

3 

1 

9      .... 

5 

6 

15.6 

19.2 

78 

115 

1 

1 

10      .... 

7 

10.1 

71 

2 

11       .... 

7 

12.1 

85 

2 

12      .... 

5 

12.0 

60 

1 

Total      .     .     . 

77 

54 

138.3 

132 

862 

774 

19 

10 

Average  .     .     . 

6.4 

6.0 

12.3 

14.3 

12.3 

14.3 

1.6 

1.1 

PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      251 

II.   EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  FIFTH-GRADE 
SUBJECTS  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 

1.  Record  of  Fifth-Grade  Subject  of  Medium  Ability 
in  Silent  Reading 

Plate  VII  shows  the  record  of  G.  B.  before  training. 
G.  B.  is  a  ten-year-old  girl  in  the  fifth  grade  in  the 
Manierre  School.  Her  general  class  average  was  re- 
ported as  92  per  cent  by  the  teacher.  Her  reading 
ability  was  classified  as  "medium."  She  is  of  foreign- 
born  parentage,  but  some  English  is  spoken  hi  the 
home.  She  is  described  as  doing  but  little  reading 
outside  of  school.  Her  rate  in  the  Courtis  Reading 
Test  was  150  words  per  minute ;  her  comprehension 
was  good. 

The  record  hi  Plate  VII  reflects  a  medium  grade  of 
reading  ability.  The  record  shows  a  fair  degree  of 
uniformity  in  the  eye-movement  habits.  The  average 
number  of  the  fixations  per  line  for  the  whole  record  is 
6.4,  which  is  considerably  better  than  the  average  of 
9.3  reported  by  C.  T.  Gray  (19)  for  his  fourth-grade 
subjects.  The  regressive  movements  are  too  frequent, 
however,  averaging  1.6  per  line.  The  average  duration 
of  the  fixation-pauses  is  12.3,  which  is  less  than  the  aver- 
age of  14.3  reported  by  Gray  for  his  fifth-grade  subjects. 

The  record  in  Plate  VIII  shows  somewhat  of  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  average  number  of  the  fixation-pauses  per 
line  —  6.4  to  6.0.  The  average  duration  of  the  pause 
has  increased,  however,  from  12.3  fiftieths  of  a  second 


252  SILENT   READING 

to  14.3  fiftieths.  The  average  number  of  regressive 
movements  per  line  is  reduced  from  1.6  to  1.1.  On  the 
whole,  Plate  VIII  shows  scarcely  any  appreciable  im- 
provement in  the  reading  habits  of  the  subject  G.  B. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  subject  did  not  do  her 
best  when  reading  before  the  camera.  As  was  pointed 
out  before,  the  situation  was  quite  an  unusual  one  and 
may  have  exercised  somewhat  of  a  disturbing  influence 
on  this  girl  subject. 

After  the  training  in  Type  I  the  subject  scored  a 
rate  of  278  words  per  minute  on  the  Courtis  Reading 
Test,  with  a  comprehension  mark  of  94  per  cent.  This 
shows  a  considerable  gain  over  her  first  score  of  150 
words  per  minute  on  the  Courtis  Test  —  a  gain  that  is 
scarcely  reflected  at  all  in  her  photographic  records. 
Lines  6, 7,  and  8  towards  the  end  of  the  record  give  evi- 
dence, however,  that  the  subject  is  capable  of  rapid 
reading.  The  record  for  line  7  is  much  superior  to  the 
record  of  any  line  in  the  subject's  previous  performance. 

2.  Record  of  a  Very  Rapid  Fifth-Grade  Reader 

Plate  IX  shows  the  record  of  L.  C.  before  training. 
L.  C.  is  a  nine-year-old  boy  in  the  fifth  grade  in  the 
Manierre  School.  The  teacher  reports  that  his  general 
class  average  is  98  per  cent ;  his  reading  ability  is  "ex- 
cellent." He  is  described  by  the  teacher  as  a  very 
rapid  reader  who  is  able  to  retain  what  he  reads.  He 
is  "fond  of  reading  and  reads  extensively  outside  of 
school."  His  lips  do  not  move  in  silent  reading;  he 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS       253 

gives  all  the  evidence  of  splendid  concentration.  His 
parents  are  native-born.  The  school  records  and 
the  teacher's  report  indicate  that  L.  C.  is  a  "gifted" 
pupil.  His  progress  through  the  grades  has  been 
accelerated. 

The  record  on  Plate  IX  shows  that  L.  C.  is  an  excep- 
tionally able  reader.  The  average  number  of  fixation- 
pauses  per  line  is  but  5,  which  is  practically  but  one- 
half  of  the  average  of  9.3  reported  by  Gray  for  his 
fifth-grade  subjects.  There  are  but  2  regressive  move- 
ments in  the  whole  record.  The  regularity  and  rhythm 
of  eye-movement  habits  displayed  by  this  record  easily 
excel  those  of  any  of  the  previous  records.  The 
average  duration  of  the  fixation-pause  is  12.8  as  com- 
pared with  the  average  of  14.3  reported  by  Gray. 
The  record  shows  very  clearly  how  L.  C.  was  able  to 
score  270  words  per  minute  on  the  Courtis  Reading 
Test  and  secure  a  mark  of  100  per  cent  in  comprehension 
by  answering  47  questions  correctly  in  the  5  minutes 
allowed. 

The  record  in  Plate  IX  might  be  thought  to  represent 
almost  the  physiological  limit  of  reading  prowess  for  a 
nine-year-old  fifth-grade  subject.  Plate  X  shows, 
however,  that  L.  C.  improved  very  noticeably  as  a 
result  of  the  training.  There  has  been  a  reduction  in 
the  total  number  of  fixation-pauses  for  the  first  6  full 
lines  in  each  record  from  30  to  21 ;  the  average  number 
per  line  has  been  lowered  from  5.0  to  3.5.  The  average 
duration  of  the  pauses  has  mounted  but  slightly  - 


254  SILENT   READING 

from  12.4  to  12.8.    There  occurs  but  one  regressive 
movement  in  the  second  record. 

PLATE    IX.    SILENT    READING    BY    FIFTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,    L.    C. — 
BEFORE   TRAINING 

/  a-  3  ^ 

I    In  dry  seasons  there  •jrere  more!  children  and 

j!3     rs  ri      it 


less]  food  at  hone*    I  Then  they  assembled  and 
iT3     10  \3  11  71 

Fle^r  ejway  in  great  atrarms  to  the]  east  and  to 
!rt        i  li  ft 

',        f  j  *  f 

the  south*     They  traveled  hundreds  of  mles* 
io       ^  17  iV  a 

/  X  J  4          £ 

^onetimes  onj  clear  •narmjmoonlignt  nights 
ri  fs  7i  7*      * 

f  •  '  4  -"f      s  f 

they  tijavjeled  all  nidht.      Ubre  iften  they  setltled 
•>  »V  73  Vl      IT1  To 


late  I  in  the  afbernoon  and  I  fed.  and  i  than 

r*        Ir  75  i1/  i 


continued  their  tray  the  next  day* 
ft  n  i 

There  is  a  balance,  a  swing,  a  rhythm  to  the  eye- 
movements  of  this  subject  which  no  previous  record 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OP  EYE-MOVEMENTS     255 

has  evidenced.     The  grasping  of  line  3  in  two  fixations 
is  rather   striking.      It  shows  the  wide  visual  span 

PLATE    X.      SILENT    READING    BY    FIFTH-GRADE    SUBJECT,   L.    C. — 
AFTER  TRAINING 

"Where  I  cornfields  stood!  at  sunrise  npthing  re- 

'  *•  3 

mained  at  nkght  but  stunrds  of  stalks  fcwarming 

a  /V  '« 

/  a 

with  hurjgry  hoppers  struggling  for  the  last 

bite.     They  dkripped  the  garo]en  patofies  bare* 
re  /* 

Thei  gnawed  great  I  holes  in  the  Irugs  andf oar- 
pi,  n  t  i* 

petls  put  but  to  save  favorite  plajrrts.     Thefbude 
?3  7  \*  5 


/  Q.  4  _  _ 

and  truit  offerees  were  co^uaed.     Tley  fol- 
^  fr  I* 

which  the  subject  utilizes  in  his  reading.  The  average 
of  3.5  fixation-pauses  per  line  is  lower  than  any  of  the 
averages  reported  by  Gray.  In  the  hierarchy  of  eye- 


256 


SILENT   READING 


movement  habits  which  these  photographic  records 
have  evidenced,  Plate  X  stands  as  the  reflex  of  the  high- 
est and  most  efficient  type.  There  is  a  coordination, 
a  harmonization  of  the  constituent  neurological  pro- 
cesses of  the  reading  complex,  evidenced  in  Plate  X, 
which  stamps  the  reader  as  one  of  exceptional  ability. 

TABLE  XXXIV.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  A 
FIFTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  L.  C.  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 
IN  RAPID  READING 


Lnm 

NUMBER  OP 

PAUSES 

AVERAGE  DURA- 
TION op  PAUSE 

AGGREGATE  DU- 
RATION OP 
PAUSE 

NUMBER  OF 
PROGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENTS 

Record 

Record 

Record 

Record 

I 

II 

I 

II 

I 

II 

I 

II 

1    

5 
4 
5 
5 
6 
5 

4 
3 
2 
3 

4 
5 

12.8 
12.7 
12.6 
13.8 
10.8 
12.0 

10.8 
14.7 
16.5 
15.3 
13.0 
10.2 

64 
51 
63 
69 
65 
60 

43 
44 
33 
46 
52 
51 

1 

0 
0 
0 

1 

0 

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 

2    

3    

4   

5   

6   

Total      .     .     . 
Average      .     . 

30 
5 

21 
3.5 

74.7 
12.4 

80.5 
12.8 

372 
12.4 

269 
12.8 

2 
0.3 

1 

0.2 

This  conclusion  is  further  corroborated  by  L.  C.'s 
record  in  the  Courtis  Test  given  at  the  end  of  the  train- 
ing. His  rate  was  395  words  per  minute,  as  against 
270  on  his  first  record.  His  index  of  comprehension 
was  97  per  cent.  He  answered  66  questions  out  of  a 
possible  70.  Only  2  of  his  answers  were  incorrect. 
His  record  of  64  correct  answers  shows  considerable 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS     257 

improvement  over  his  previous  record  of  47.  The  in- 
crease in  speed  of  L.  C.'s  reading  as  shown  by  the  eye- 
movement  records  is  from  48  lines  per  minute  to  66  - 
an  increase  of  18  lines,  or  38  per  cent.  This  harmonizes 
fairly  closely  with  the  increase  as  shown  by  the  Courtis 
Test  of  125  words  per  minute,  or  46  per  cent.  All  in 
all,  Plate  X  gives  a  record  of  the  highest  type  of  eye- 
movement  habits  photographed  in  this  investigation. 
To  facilitate  a  closer  comparison  of  the  two  records  of 
L.  C.,  the  data  on  each  performance  are  presented  in  tab- 
ular form  (Table  XXXIV). 

III.    EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORD  OF  A  SLOW  SEVENTH- 
GRADE  READER 

Plate  XI  shows  the  record  of  M.  C.  before  training. 
M.  C.  is  a  twelve-year-old  girl  in  the  seventh  grade  in 
the  Hendricks  School.  At  the  beginning  of  the  train- 
ing she  was  a  slow,  plodding  reader.  Her  comprehen- 
sion was  good.  Her  rate  on  the  Courtis  Test  was  170 
words  per  minute.  Her  index  of  comprehension  was 
100  per  cent,  though  she  succeeded  in  answering  only 
28  questions  as  contrasted  with  the  47  correctly  an- 
swered by  the  fifth-grade  subject,  L.  C.,  before  training. 
Her  parents  are  native-born.  The  subject  manifested 
great  interest  in  the  training. 

The  record  hi  Plate  XI  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  subject  was  of  the  over-careful  type  —  painstak- 
ingly fixating  practically  every  word  —  some  of  them 
twice.  For  a  seventh-grade  pupil  such  simple  words 


258  SILENT   READING 

as  are  contained  in  lines  1  and  6  should  not  require  11 
and  12  fixations  respectively.  The  average  number  of 
fixation-pauses  per  line  for  the  complete  record  is  8.4  as 
compared  with  an  average  of  7.7  reported  by  Gray 

PLATE  XI.     SILENT   READING    OF  SEVENTH-GRADE    SUBJECT,   M.    C. 
—  BEFORE   TRAINING 

t         '.        M  9   I*  F  T  ?  '\       ll 

there  ik  hb  hnbre  interesting  study  to  sarinc 

IT    10  7s-  Vfiij         i»  i*  '*•  7 

i     {  4  *  f  •        7 

1  architects  than  tttat  of  the  growth  of  modern  ships 

t     ITO  fy  Fa.  ^  iV       F 

4          f         f          f  '    .  ? 

their  barliestJ  form*     Ancient/  ships  of  war 

'  '        ^' 


a.    f          a  4  f  £       j 

and  of  bommeree  ebually  interest  tttem;  but  as 

!r  JV        i^.  TJ  13  V      r* 

a.    '      3         >  f  if  T          f 

thiy  stjudy  th4  douiLptures  and  iritingsl  o?  the 

10    T     T        y  «  T  'f          f 

X  /.  f,7  3     fc       f     f         '0     ?     V  'f 

akwAentsJ|th!ey!fin4  relo  or  dsi  of  I  Tranships  f  s>  out- 

«    C  7'T  I    ^^        "*      '•  '•     '"     '* 


" 

ntUberingl  sliips  of  commerce. 
if  i  s  iW  13 

for  his  7  seventh-grade  subjects.  The  total  number 
of  regressive  movements  for  the  12  complete  lines  is 
30  ;  the  average  number  per  line  is  2.5.  The  number 
is  excessive.  It  indicates  an  over-cautiousness,  a  metic- 


>are 


re- 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      259 

I'LATE   XII.     SILENT   READING   BY   SEVENTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  M.   C. 
—  AFTER  TRAINING 

Tnefe  is  jiq  quesijicjn  nor?  ^hat  the  ships  of  (the 
ancient  a  ni^de  extended  voyages  urgeq  by  p 

/•        -4  ^f        i       f 

alone*    Aj  thousand  Aarsraen  ncjre  sometimes 

quired  to)  nan  tjhe  sireeps  pesides  a  prev  of]  five 

41  4    S"  ^  ^  * 

n^red  soldi^rsjand  aailfrs*    Written  de^orip- 

tion^  giv^  us  splendid  piotures  of  fljeets  of  these 

4        i-  T  M      t    C  7 

ancient  phips  ^>|ri|ig  fwi^tly  along  pe  villa-dotted 

'.  t  ^ 

shores  of  Greece,  orj  majestically  sweeping  into 

4{  frf          V    t  f  7 

olrror-like  harbor,  and  wijbh  sounding  trpm4> 

4'  ^l  ^     f  * 

utijjg  the  setting  of  the  lo'jr,  jre stern  kun» 


Only  the  fixation-positions  are  marked.     It  waa  impossible  to  determine  the  duration 
of  the  fixation-pauses  on  this  film. 


260  SILENT   READING 

ulousness,  a  dawdling  over  the  words  which  would  ap- 
pear to  be  quite  unnecessary  for  a  subject  whose  com- 
prehension is  as  good  as  M.  C.'s.  It  is  not  unlikely 
the  result  of  a  slow,  plodding,  leisurely  reading  habit, 
which  as  Huey  says,  was  probably  "set  and  hardened 
in  the  days  of  listless  poring  over  uninteresting  tasks, 
or  in  imitation  of  the  slow  reading  aloud,  which  was  so 
usually  going  on."  An  average  of  2.5  regressive  move- 
ments to  a  line  shows  very  clearly  that  the  subject  has 
not  formed  efficient  habits  of  regular,  systematic, 
rhythmical  eye-movements,  but  suffers  from  ineffi- 
cient, wasteful,  time-consuming,  repetitive  ocular  motor 
reactions,  which  have  become  habitual. 

The  record  in  Plate  XII  shows  a  considerable  im- 
provement. The  average  number  of  fixations  per 
line  has  been  reduced  from  8.4  to  6.5.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  line  1,  no  line  required  more  than  8  fixations. 
The  functioning  of  a  wider  perceptual  span  is  clearly 
evident.  Line  8  is  grasped  in  3  fixations,  while  the 
smallest  number  on  any  complete  line  in  the  subject's 
previous  record  was  6.  The  regressive  movements 
dropped  from  an  average  of  2.5  to  1.6  per  line,  most  of 
which  occurred  in  the  initial  fixation  in  each  line. 

The  subject  is  evidently  finding  some  of  her  numerous 
fixation-pauses  unnecessary  and  is  setting  up  more 
efficient  habits  of  regular  rhythmical  eye-movements. 
The  improvement  effected  in  the  reading  habits  of  this 
subject  by  training  in  Type  I,  which  is  reflected  in  the 
photographic  records,  is  further  shown  by  the  data 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      261 


from  the  Courtis  Test  administered  at  the  end  of  the 
experiment.  The  subject  scored  a  rate  of  368  words 
per  minute  as  contrasted  with  her  previous  score  of 
170.  Her  index  of  comprehension  is  96  per  cent,  but 
she  answered  67  questions,  of  which  65  were  correct  as 
compared  with  her  previous  record  of  28  correct  answers. 
The  data  from  the  two  eye-movement  records  of 
subject  M.  C.  are  presented  in  Table  XXXV. 

TABLE  XXXV.     COMPARISON  OF  THE  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  A 
SEVENTH-GRADE  SUBJECT,  M.  C.  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING 


lam 

NUMBER  OF 
PAUSES 

DURATION  OF 
PAUSES 

NUMBER  OF  RE- 
GRESSIVE MOVE- 
HE  NTS 

Record 

Record  I 

Record 

I 

II 

Average 

Aggregate 

I 

.  II 

1  

11 

7 
7 
7 
8 
12 
6 
9 
7 
6 
9 
12 

10 
6 
5 
6 
7 
6 
8 
3 
8 
6 

13.2 
10.6 
10.9 
10.4 
10.1 
12.0 
11.7 
8.1 
8.0 
10.8 
9.2 
8.8 

145 
74 
76 
73 
81 
144 
70 
73 
56 
65 
83 

4 
1 
1 
1 
3 
5 
0 
3 
2 
1 
4 
5 

3 
H 
1 

1 
2 
1 
3 
0 
3 
1 

2  

3  

4  

5  

6  

7  

8  

9  

10  

11  

12  

Total  

101 
8.4 

65 
6.5 

123.8 
10.3 

1037 
10.3 

30 
2.5 

16 
1.6 

Average  .... 

A  few  other  photographic  records  were  taken  of  ele- 
mentary pupils,  but  it  is  thought  that  the  records  shown 


262  SILENT   READING 

above  reflect  sufficiently  well  the  important  modifica- 
tions in  the  eye-movement  habits,  i.e.  in  the  number 
and  duration  of  fixation-pauses,  number  of  regressive 
movements,  and  regularity  of  the  eye-movements, 
which  were  effected  by  the  experimental  training. 

EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  AN  ADULT  IN  ORAL  AND 
SILENT  READING 

Plate  XIII  shows  the  record  of  an  adult,  J.  A.,  in  silent 
reading.  The  subject  is  a  graduate  student  at  the 
University  of  Illinois  who  has  read  rather  extensively. 
He  had  received  some  training  in  Type  I.  It  was 
thought  that  a  comparison  of  the  eye-movement  record 
of  a  trained  adult  reader  with  the  records  of  elementary 
school  pupils  would  yield  some  interesting  results. 
The  record  seems  to  reflect  a  greater  degree  of  maturity 
than  any  of  the  previous  records,  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  the  record  of  L.  C.  after  training,  as  shown 
in  Plate  X.  With  the  exception  of  the  latter  record, 
the  average  number  of  fixation-pauses  per  line,  4.3  in 
J.  A.'s  reading,  is  less  than  the  average  achieved  by  any 
of  the  grade  pupils.  The  average  duration  of  the  fixa- 
tion-pauses in  J.  A.'s  record  is  11.3,  which  is  1.5  less 
than  the  average  duration  of  the  fixations  in  L.  C.'s 
record.  There  is  a  greater  regularity  and  more  of  a 
rhythmical  character  to  the  ocular  motor  reaction  in 
J.  A.'s  record  than  appears  in  most  of  the  previous 
records.  The  average  number  of  regressive  movements 
per  line  is  very  small  —  but  0.4.  The  perceptual  span 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      263 


is  wider  than  that  reflected  in  most  of  the  records  of  the 
elementary  pupils. 

TABLE  XXXVI.     COMPARISON  OF  EYE-MOVEMENT  RECORDS  OF  SILENT 
AND  ORAL  READING  BY  ADULT  SUBJECT,  J.  A. 


LINE 

NUMBER  or 
PAUSES 

AVERAGE 
DURATION  OF 
PAUSE 

AGGREGATE 
DURATION  OF 
PAUSES 

NUMBER  OF 
REGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENTS 

Oral 

Silent 

Oral 

Silent 

Oral 

Silent 

Oral 

Silent 

1    .... 

6 

3 

13.5 

14.3 

81 

43 

1 

0 

2   .... 

8 

4 

13.2 

10.7 

106 

43 

2 

1 

3   .... 

6 

5 

14.8 

9.8 

89 

49 

1 

1 

4   .... 

5 

4 

15.2 

11.0 

76 

0 

0 

5   .... 

7 

4 

12.6 

10.0 

88 

40 

1 

0 

6   .... 

6 

4 

11.7 

10.6 

70 

43 

0 

0 

7   .... 

7 

3 

16.9 

12.3 

128 

37 

1 

0 

8   .... 

5 

6 

21.0 

10.7 

105 

64 

0 

1 

9   .... 

5 

5 

13.2 

10.8 

76 

54 

0 

1 

10   .... 

5 

4 

16.4 

14.0 

82 

56 

1 

0 

11    .... 

7 

3 

14.8 

15.3 

94 

46 

1 

0 

12   .... 

7 

4 

12.4 

11.5 

87 

46 

1 

0 

13   .... 

5 

7 

14.4 

10.0 

72 

70 

0 

1 

Total  .     .     . 

79 

56 

190.1 

151.0 

1154 

591 

9 

5 

Average    .     . 

6.1 

4.3 

14.6 

11.3 

14.6 

11.3 

0.7 

0.4 

After  the  subject  J.  A.  had  read  the  selection  silently 
before  the  camera,  he  was  requested  to  read  it  orally 
to  see  how  the  two  records  would  compare.  Though 
the  subject  had  the  advantage  of  being  more  familiar 
with  the  passage  when  he  was  called  to  read  orally, 
yet  the  record  in  Plate  XIV  shows  that  oral  reading 
occasions  much  more  cumbrous  and  awkward  ocular 
motor  adjustments  than  its  silent  prototype.  The 
average  number  of  fixation-pauses  per  line  immediately 


264  SILENT   READING 

rises  from  4. 3 to  6.1,  showing  that  the  perceptual  process 
is  forced  to  wait  upon  the  slower  process  of  vocalization. 

PLATE  XIII.     SILENT   READING  BY  ADULT  SUBJECT,   J.   A. 
'.  %  ^ 

There  is  no  metre  interesting  study  to  marine 
IT        IS       rj 


ihat  of  the  growth  of  modern  fhipi 
»>  $   IV 


architects  than  thkt  of  the  growth  of  modern 

M 


frok  their  earliest  form*]  Ancient  ships  bf  far 

»  n 


. 

and  of  oonaerok  equally  interest  them;     ijut  as 

*  '  t  '  If  * 

/  a.  j  4 

tney  stuojr  the  sculptures  and  -writings  of  (the 

/  J.  If 

antientsj  they  find  records  of  -warships  J  f  ar  out- 

t        b  i«  /V 


ing  ships  of  oonnrce. 

4  ijt 

ill 

Among  ancient  nations,  the  Greeks  and  Ho- 

*  '5  7? 

It  is  significant  also  that  the  average  duration  of  the 
pauses  mounts  from  11.3  to  14.6.  -  The  total  number  of 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS   OF   EYE-MOVEMENTS    265 

regressive  movements  jumps  from  5  to  9.  The  uni- 
formity of  the  ocular  motor  reaction  habits  is  disturbed 
by  the  attempt  to  synchronize  the  perceptual  process 

PLATE   XIV.     ORAL   READING   BY   ADULT  SUBJECT,   J.   A. 


/      o.  J  •*  4       f 

I      TJhere  is  no  more)  interesting  sti|idy  to  JiarinJB 

/.  *       4  S    <i  I  f     7 

ardhitects  thkn  tViat  of  thi  grjowth  of  modern  shipb 
•V  13       to  If    W  L*  ilo    10 

frorA  their  elrliest  jform.     Ancieftt  ships  of  war     I 
3      l\t     fc          1%  if  " 

l       ^      4       «f 

and  olf  conmeroA  equally  interest  fthem;  but  as 
7      /V       ?7     X3       l/» 

'  *    4     f   f  t  1 

they  it««T  the  sculptures  arjd  writings  of  thb 

\  y      /V        flF    <V  iv  iv 

(        *          4       £         f  t 

anciejtts,  they  find  records  of  watships  far  jnit- 
/i         n  ji        /v  /*  /J 

nui-jbering  ^hips  of  commerce. 
*"  '& 

Among  anoieVit  natiiis,  ihe  GrAeks  anfl  ^o-    I 
/V  ?»      T8        «          Ji  '*      " 

with  the  slower  and  more  unwieldy  process  of  articu- 
lation with  the  latter's  more  complete  dependence 
upon  an  elaborate  physiological  mechanism.  In  short, 


266 


SILENT   READING 


the  record  of  silent  reading  shows  a  marked  and  un- 
mistakable superiority  over  the  oral  reading  in  prac- 
tically every  important  phase  of  the  eye-movements, 
i.e.  the  number  of  fixations,  the  length  of  fixations,  the 
number  of  regressive  movemen  s,  and  regularity  of 
eye-movement  habits.  It  shows  clearly  the  physi- 
ological basis  for  the  unmistakable  superiority  of  silent 
over  oral  reading,  both  in  point  of  time  and  energy 
expended. 

The  data  from  the  complete  records  of  J.  A.'s  silent 
and  oral  reading  are  thrown  into  tabular  form  to  facili- 
tate comparison  of  the  two  records.  (Table  XXXVI.) 

TABLE  XXXVII.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  NUMBER  OF  FIXATION-PAUSES 
AND  REGRESSIVE  MOVEMENTS  OF  FIVE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOL 
PUPILS  —  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  TRAINING  IN  RAPID  READING 


POTILB 

AVERAGE  NUMBER 
or  PAUSES 

AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF 
REGRESSIVE  MOVEMENTS 

Record 

Record 

I 

II 

I 

II 

L  C  . 

5.0 
8.4 
11.7 
7.1 
9.5 

3.5 
6.5 
7.8 
5.1 

7.2 

0.3 

2.5 
2.4 
1.1 
1.0 

0.2 
1.6 
1.0 
1.1 
0.4 

M  C  

A  P  

N.  C  .     . 

M.  L  

Total     

41.7 
8.3 

30.1 
6.0 

7.3 
1.5 

4.3 

0.8 

Average     

Table  XXXVII  epitomizes  the  effect  of  the  experi- 
mental training  upon  the  number  of  the  fixation-pauses 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      267 

and  the  number  of  regressive  movements  in  the  reading 
of  five  elementary  school  pupils.  The  records  of  their 
eye-movements  have  been  presented  in  this  chapter. 
The  subject  G.  B.  is  omitted  from  the  table  because  the 
improvement,  if  any,  in  this  case  is  less  clearly  discerni- 
ble than  in  the  others.  In  an  endeavor  to  determine 
whether  the  increase  in  speed  of  reading  is  due  to  the 
lessening  of  the  number  of  pauses,  or  to  the  shortening 
of  the  duration  of  the  pauses,  his  record,  showing  no 
increase  in  speed,  obviously  could  not  be  used.  The 
table  shows  that  the  acquisition  of  a  habit  of  rapid 
reading  such  as  these  subjects  achieved,  results  in  a 
noticeable  reduction  in  the  number  of  fixation-pauses. 
The  average  number  of  fixations  per  line  for  the  five 
subjects  before  training  is  8.3 ;  after  training  in  rapid 
reading,  it  is  reduced  to  6.0  —  a  decrease  of  2.3  per  line. 
The  reduction  in  the  number  of  regressive  movements 
is  also  quite  marked.  From  an  average  of  1.5  per  line 
for  the  first  reading  it  drops  to  the  small  average  of  0.8. 
An  effort  was  also  made  to  compare  the  rate  of  the 
interfixation  and  the  interlinear  movements  of  the 
eyes  in  the  first  and  second  reading  records  of  three  of 
the  subjects.  The  rate  was  measured  in  <r  (io*66  of  a 
second).  The  apparatus  was  scarcely  delicate  enough, 
however,  to  measure  <r  with  perfect  accuracy.  The 
average  time  per  line  consumed  by  the  interfixation 
movements  in  the  first  reading  record  was  122<r  as  com- 
pared with  101<r  in  the  record  taken  after  training. 
The  average  for  the  interlinear  movements  in  the  first 


268  SILENT   READING 

record  was  42cr  as  compared  with  57cr  for  the  second 
record.  The  results  do  not  point  to  any  significant 
change  in  the  rate  of  the  interfixation  or  interlinear 
movements. 

Unfortunately  the  duration  of  the  fixation-pauses  for 
both  the  first  and  second  records  could  be  determined 
for  but  three  of  the  six  subjects  whose  records  are 
shown.  In  two  of  these,  the  duration  of  the  pauses  is 
slightly  longer  in  the  second  record  ;  in  the  other  one  it 
remains  approximately  the  same.  It  is  very  probable 
that  a  marked  reduction  in  the  number  of  fixations 
results  in  an  increase,  more  or  less,  in  the  average 
duration  of  the  fixation.  While  the  average  duration 
of  the  fixation  becomes  slightly  larger,  the  aggregate 
duration  of  the  pauses  per  line  is  much  less  than  before 
the  reduction  in  the  number  of  fixations.  The  records 
of  L.  C.  in  Table  XXXIV  and  of  A.  P.  in  Table  XXX 
are  good  illustrations  of  this.  Though  the  average 
duration  per  pause  for  L.  C.'s  second  record  is  12.8  as 
compared  with  12.4  for  his  first  record,  yet  the  aggre- 
gate duration  of  the  pauses  per  line  in  the  second  record 
is  less  for  every  line  than  in  the  first  record.  The  re- 
duction in  the  number  of  fixations  means  that  the 
fixations  must  embrace  a  wider  area.  The  grasping  of 
more  material  in  a  single  fixation  would  naturally  seem 
to  be  accompanied  by  a  slight  increase  in  the  duration 
of  the  pause. 

Considering  the  limited  number  of  subjects  whose 
eye-movements  were  photographed  in  this  investiga- 


PHOTOGRAPHIC  RECORDS  OF  EYE-MOVEMENTS      269 

tion,  the  conclusions  which  an  analysis  of  these  records 
would  clearly  seem  to  justify  are : 

1.  A   habit    of   speed   in   silent    reading    acquired 
through  persistent  training  is  accompanied  physiologi- 
cally chiefly  by  a  reduction  in  the  number  of  fixation- 
pauses. 

2.  The  types  of  training  utilized  hi  this  investiga- 
tion effected  a  noticeable  reduction  in  the  number  of 
regressive  movements  as  shown  by  the  eye-movements 
which  were  photographed. 


CHAPTER  XI 
SUMMARY  OF  CONCLUSIONS 

IT  was  not  the  purpose  of  this  experiment  to  isolate 
and  weigh  separately  the  effect  of  different  single  factors 
upon  the  rate  in  silent  reading.  That  is  one  of  the 
interesting  and  fascinating  problems  in  the  experimental 
psychology  of  reading  which  yet  awaits  the  hand  of  the 
investigator.  The  purpose  of  this  investigation  was  to 
determine  the  effectiveness  of  a  group  of  factors  synthe- 
sized into  an  organized  method  or  type  of  training  upon 
the  rate  in  silent  reading.  The  query  of  practical 
pedagogical  consequence  back  of  the  investigation  was  : 
How  can  speed  in  silent  reading  be  developed  without 
impairing  the  comprehension  of  the  matter  read  ? 

Practically  all  the  conclusions  issuing  from  the  pres- 
ent investigation  are  contained  in  the  two  previous 
chapters.  For  the  sake  of  convenience,  some  of  the 
more  important  generalizations  are  expressed  here. 

This  investigation  has  shown  that  rate  in  silent 
reading  may  be  accelerated  to  a  marked  degree  by  train- 
ing in  rapid  silent  reading.  This  was  demonstrated 
for  all  the  grades  investigated,  namely,  grades  three 

270 


SUMMARY   OF   CONCLUSIONS  271 

to  eight.  In  the  course  of  two  months'  training  in  rapid 
reading,  an  average  gain  for  the  experimental  pupils 
in  the  five  grades  of  110  words  per  minute  was  effected, 
as  compared  with  an  average  gain  of  64  words  per 
minute  for  the  control  pupils.  Reducing  the  average 
gain  in  number  of  words  read  per  minute  to  a  percent- 
age basis,  the  amount  of  improvement  for  the  experi- 
mental pupils  in  all  the  grades  was  56  per  cent,  as 
against  25  per  cent  for  the  controls  —  an  average 
superiority  of  31  per  cent  for  the  experimental  pupils. 
Inasmuch  as  the  control  pupils  were  taught  by  the 
same  teacher  in  the  same  classroom  with  the  experi- 
mental, they  were  not  entirely  unaffected  by  the 
experimental  training.  Their  increase  in  speed  was 
consequently  greater  than  that  of  pupils  receiving  only 
the  conventional  training  in  reading  in  classrooms 
where  no  experimental  training  was  in  evidence.  This 
is  shown  by  a  comparison  of  their  final  averages  in  rate 
with  the  present  norms.  Consequently,  the  superior- 
ity of  the  average  gain  in  rate  of  the  experimental  pupils 
over  the  control  pupils  —  great  as  it  is  —  does  not 
fully  reflect  the  degree  of  superiority  of  the  rates  of 
the  experimental  pupils  over  the  present  norms  for  the 
different  grades.  This  is  shown  by  a  direct  comparison 
of  the  final  averages  of  the  experimental  pupils  with  the 
norms  reported  by  Courtis,  Starch,  Gray,  and  others, 
for  the  different  grades.  This  comparison  shows  also 
that  the  present  reading  rates  of  pupils  in  the  different 
grades  are  unnecessarily  slow  and  inefficient.  A  com- 


272  SILENT   READING 

paratively  brief  period  of  training  can  increase  them 
more  than  50  per  cent. 

Concomitant  with  the  marked  increase  in  speed  there 
resulted  a  slight  improvement  in  the  accuracy  of  the 
comprehension.  The  average  gain  of  the  experimentals 
was  0.9  per  cent  as  against  a  loss  of  0.7  per  cent  for  the 
controls  —  a  final  average  superiority  in  gain  over  the 
controls  of  1.6  per  cent  in  comprehension.  This  is  the 
improvement  as  measured  by  the  Courtis  Index,  which 
is  chiefly  an  index  of  accuracy.  As  measured  by  the 
number  of  questions  correctly  answered,  the  improve- 
ment in  comprehension  is  notably  greater  —  an  average 
increase  of  12.5  questions  correctly  answered,  or  29 
per  cent.  In  fact  the  number  of  questions  correctly 
answered  by  the  experimental  pupils  in  each  grade  after 
training  is  greater  than  the  norms  for  the  total  number 
of  questions  attempted,  whether  answered  correctly  or 
wrongly,  as  reported  by  Courtis. 

This  increase  indicates  furthermore  a  persistence  of 
the  improvement  effected  hi  rate  in  different  situations 
an  different  mental  attitudes,  as  in  reading  simply 
to  "  get  the  gist,"  and  in  reading  to  answer  questions. 

The  eye-movement  records  show  that  the  improve- 
ment is  effected  physiologically  chiefly  by  a  lessening 
of  the  number  of  fixations  rather  than  by  a  shortening 
of  the  average  duration  of  the  fixations.  The  im- 
provement is  also  accompanied  by  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  regressive  movements  and  by  the  "setting 
up"  of  habits  of  regular  rhythmical  eye-movements. 


SUMMARY   OF   CONCLUSIONS  273 

The  pedagogical  implication  of  this  finding  is  that 
short  exposure  exercises,  in  which  the  amount  of  ma- 
terial exposed  is  gradually  increased,  rather  than  the 
amount  of  exposure  time  being  decreased,  tend  to  de- 
velop speed  in  reading.  It  demonstrates  that  the 
directions  in  the  types  of  training,  outlined  in  this 
study,  to  "see  more  at  a  glance,"  etc.,  are  well  based. 
It  shows  that  the  development  of  speed  in  silent  reading 
is,  in  reality,  reducible  to  the  more  effective  utilization 
of  the  perceptual  span  in  reading. 


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APPENDIX1 

LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  SILENT  READING 

The  following  list  of  books  has  been  selected  by  Mr.  James  P.  Hosic 
of  the  Chicago  Normal  School  from  a  much  larger  list  which  he  had 
prepared  for  use  in  certain  Chicago  schools  designated  for  the  time 
as  "English  Centers." 

The  present  list  is  prepared  especially  for  use  in  certain  schools  of 
the  state  where  a  method  of  improving  silent  reading  has  been  tested  out 
by  Dr.  John  A.  O'Brien  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  B.  R.  Buckingham  of 
the  University  of  Illinois.  The  last  few  titles  under  each  grade  are  from 
the  Supplementary  Reading  List  adopted  February  13,  1919,  by  the 
Chicago  Board  of  Education. 

SECOND  GRADE 

Dutton  In  Field  and  Pasture  American  Book  Co. 

Schaffner        Sam ;  or,  Our  Cat  Tales        Atkinson,  Mentzer  <fe  Co. 

THIRD  GRADE 

Baldwin          Fifty  Famous  Stories  American  Book  Co. 

Bigham  Merry  Animal  Tales  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

Craik  Adventures  of  a  Brownie      Educational  Publishing  Co. 

1  The  shift  of  emphasis  from  oral  to  silent  reading  necessitates  the 
use  of  a  larger  amount  of  reading  material  in  all  the  grades  from  the 
second  to  the  eighth.  These  lists  are  appended  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  assist  teachers  to  solve  the  consequent  problem  of  finding  a  suffi- 
cient amount  of  material  suitable  for  either  basic  or  supplementary 
reading.  Many  of  the  readers  cited  in  these  lists  are  published  by 
several  firmK.  Where  no  publisher  is  .specified,  the  book  as  a  rule  can 
he  procured  from  practically  any  publishing  company. 

281 


282 


APPENDIX 


Gale  Achilles  and  Hector 

McMurry       Story  of  Robinson  Crusoe 
Mulock          Little  Lame  Prince 
Sindelar          Father    Thrift    and    His 

Animal  Friends 
Sindelar          Nixy-Bunny  in  Far  Away 

Lands 
Stevenson       Children's      Classics      in 

Dramatic  Form,  Book  2 
Scudder          Fables  and  Folk  Stories 
Schmidt          A       Dramatic       Reader, 

Book3 
Holbrook        A  Dramatic    Reader    for 

Lower  Grades 

Burgess          old  Mother  West  Wind 
Segur  gtory  of  a  Donkey 


Public  School  Publishing  Co. 
Public  School  Publishing  Co. 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 

Beckley-Cardy  Co. 
Beckley-Cardy  Co. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

B.  D.  Berry 

American  Book  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 


FOURTH  GRADE 


Aanrud 
Baker  and 

Thorndike 
Bigham 
Carrol 
Collodli 
Ghosh 
Harris 
Large 
Mirick  and 

Holmes 
Schwartz 

Schwartz 

Segur 

Wesselhoeft 

Wiggin 

Warren 

Warren 
Cook 


Lisbeth  Longrock 

Everyday  Classics,  Book  4 
Fanciful  Flower  Tales 
Alice  in  Wonderland 
Adventures  of  Pinocchio 
Wonders  of  the  Jungle 
Little  Mr.  Thimblefmger 
A  Visit  to  the  Farm 
Home    Life    around    the 

World 

Grasshopper  Green's  Gar- 
den 

Wilderness  Babies 
Sophie 

Jack  the  Fire  Dog 
Story  of  Patsy 
King    Arthur     and     His 

Knights 
Robin     Hood     and     His 

Merry  Men 
Story  of  Ulysses 


Ginn  &  Co. 

The  Macmillan  Company 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Rand-McNally  &  Co. 
Ginn  &  Co. 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
The  Macmillan  Company 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Rand-McNally  &  Co. 

Rand-McNally  &  Co. 
Public  School  Publishing  Co. 


APPENDIX 


283 


Alcott 
Austin 
Bachman 

Baker  and 
Thorndike 

Dodge 

Hyde 

Kipling 

Long 

Seton 

Gale 

Stevenson 

Baldwin 
Harris 
Spyri 
Skinner 


FIFTH  GRADE 

Little  Women  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

The  Basket  Woman  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Great  Inventors  and  Their 
Inventions  American  Book  Co. 


Everyday  Classics,  Book  5 

Hans  Brinker 
Favorite  Greek  Myths 
Just  So  Stories 
Wood  Folk  at  School 
Krag  and  Johnny  Bear 
Achilles  and  Hector 
Children's  Classics  in  Dra- 
matic Form,  Book  4 
Golden  Fleece 
Little  Mr.  Thimblefinger 
Moni,  The  Goat  Boy 
Tales  and  Plays  of  Robin 
Hood 


The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany 

Ginn  &  Co. 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 
Century  Co. 
Ginn  &  Co. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
Rand-McNaUy  &  Co. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
American  Book  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Ginn  &  Co. 

American  Book  Co. 


Baldwin 

Carter 
Faris 
Hill 
Lagerlof 

Lang 
Moore 

Roosevelt 

Wiggin  and  Smith 

Spyri 

Mabie 

Baldwin 


SIXTH  GRADE 

American  Book  of  Golden 

Deeds 

Stories  of  Brave  Dogs 
Makers  of  Our  History 
Fighting  a  Fire 
Wonderful  Adventures  of 

Nils 

Story  of  Joan  of  Arc 
Story      of      Christopher 

Columbus 

Stories  of  the  Great  West 
The  Posy  Ring 
Heidi 

Norse  Stories 
Old  Greek  Stories 


American  Book  Co. 
Century  Co. 
Ginn  &  Co. 
Century  Co. 

Grosset  &  Dunlap 


Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Century  Co. 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co. 
Ginn  &  Co. 
Rand-McNally  &  Co. 
American  Book  Co. 


284  APPENDIX 

Church  Story  of  the  Iliad  The  Macmillan  Com- 

pany 

Church  Story  of  the  Odyssey  The  Macmillan  Com- 

pany 
Baldwin  Thirty      More      Famous 

Stories  Retold  American  Book  Co. 

SEVENTH  GRADE 

Aldrich  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Baker  and  Thorndike  Everyday  Classics,  Book  7  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany 

Barrie  Peter  and  Wendy 

Brooks  The  Story  of  King  Arthur  Perm  Publishing  Co. 

Fitz-Hugh  Boy's  Book  of  Scouts         T.  Y.  Crowell  Co. 

Hale  Man  without  a  Country     Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

Jordan  The  Story  of  Matka 

Mace  Life  of  Lincoln  Rand-McNally  &  Co. 

Pierce  Great  Inventors  and  Dis- 

coverers Charles  E.  Merrill  Co. 

Sanford  and  Owen      Modern  Americans  Laurel  Book  Co. 

Stoddard  Red  Mustang  Harper  Bros. 

Seton  Trail  of  the  Sandhill  Stag 

Weed  Bird  Life  Stories  Rand-McNally  &  Co. 

Williams  Some    Successful    Ameri- 

cans Ginn  &  Co. 

Stevenson  Children's      Classics      hi 

Dramatic  Form,  Book  5  Houghton  Mifflia  Co. 

Montgomery  Heroic  Ballads  Ginn  &  Co. 

EIGHTH  GRADE 

Baker  and  Thonxdike  Everyday  Classics,  Book  8  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany 

Baldwin  Fifty  Famous  Rides 

Chapin  Story  of  the  Rhinegold 

Cooper  Last  of  the  Mohicans 

D'Amicis  Heart  of  a  Boy  Rand-McNally  &  Co. 

Eastman  An  Indian  Boyhood 

Fabre  Insect  Adventures  Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 

Grenfel  Adrift  on  an  Ice  Pan  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Mace  Life  of  Washington  Rand-McNally  &  Co. 


APPENDIX 


285 


Madden  Emmy  Lou 

Rice  Mrs.  Wiggs  of  the  Cab- 

bage Patch 

Scott  Talisman 

Thompson  Scouting     with      Daniel 

Boone 
Western  Frontier  Stories 

Wiggin  and  Smith      Golden  Numbers 

Tennyson  and  others  Poems  of  Knightly  Adven- 
ture 


Doubleday ,  Page  &  Co . 
Century  Co. 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co. 

Newson  &  Co. 


Titles  for  Silent  Reading  Furnished  by  the  Conference  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois,  April  12,  1919. 


Blaisdell 

Craik 

Lucia 

Lucia 

Lucia 

Varney 


Bigham 

Bigham 

Bryce 

Haliburton 

Holbrook 

Burgess 

Burgess 
Burgess 
Burgess 
Burgess 

McManus  and  Har- 
ren 


THIKD  GRADE 

Bunny  Rabbit's  Diary  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Bow-wow  and  Mew-mew  Charles  E.  Merrill  Co. 
Peter  and  Polly  in  Spring  American  Book  Co. 
Peter  and  Polly  in  Summer  American  Book  Co. 
Peter  and  Polly  in  Winter  American  Book  Co. 
Robin  Reader,  first  Reader  Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


FOURTH  GRADE 

Fanciful  Flower  Tales 

Merry  Animal  Tales 

That's  Why  Stories 

Third  Reader 

Book  of  Nature  Myths 

Mother  West  Wind 
"How"  Stories 

Mother  West  Wind 
"Why"  Stories 

Mother  West  Wind's 
Children 

Mother  West  Wind's  Ani- 
mal Friends 

Mother  West  Wind's 
Neighbors 

Natural  Method  Third 
Reader 


Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Newson  &  Co. 
D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


286 


APPENDIX 


Schwartz 
Scudder 

Smith 

Treadwell  and  Free 


Eggleston 

Lorenzini 

Murray 

Scottenfels 


Hancock 

Spyri 

Thorne-Thomsen 

Thorne-Thomsen 


Greene 

Maeterlinck 

Mallory 

Swift 


Grasshopper  Green's  Gar- 
den Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

Book  of  Fables  and  Folk 
Stories  Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 

Eskimo  Stories  Rand-McNally  &  Co. 

Reading-Literature,  First 

and  Second  Readers  Row,  Peterson  &  Co. 

FIFTH  GRADE 

Stories  of  Great  Americans 

for  Little  Americans        American  Book  Co. 
Pinocchio  Ginn  &  Co. 

Story  Land  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

Stories  of  the  Nibelungen 

for  Young  People  A.  Flanagan  &  Co. 

SIXTH  GRADE 

Children  of  History  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 

Heidi  Ginn  &  Co. 

Birch  and  the  Star  and 

Other  Stories  Row,  Peterson  &  Co. 

East  o'  the  Sun  and  West 

o'  the  Moon 


SEVENTH  GRADE 

Legends  of  King  Arthur 

and  His  Court 
Blue  Bird  for  Children 
King  Arthur  Stories 
Gulliver's  Travels 


Ginn  &  Co. 
Silver,  Burdett  &  Co. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Harper  &  Brothers 


INDEX 


Abell,  A.  M.,  47  f. 

Ability  to  grasp  meaning  of  contents, 

66. 
Adult  reader's  photographic  record, 

263  ff. 

Ahrens,  A.,  6. 

Anaesthesia,  visual  central,  9. 
Articulation,  atrophy  of,  48 ;  vestigial, 

107  ;  unnecessary,  115  ff. 
Assimilation,  66  ff. 
Association,  mental,  112  f. 

Bain,  A.,  102. 

Baldwin,  J.,  104  ff. 

Ballet,  G.,  102  ff. 

Bastian,  H.  C.,  105. 

Bawden,  H.  H..  106. 

Bowden,  J.,  41. 

Brown,  W.,  203  ff. 

Buckingham,  B.  R.,  91. 

Bureau  of  Educational  Research,  149. 

Bushwell,  G.  T.,  18. 

Cattell,  J.  M.,  3. 

Chart,  class,  75  ff. ;  growth  in  speed 
shown  by,  214  ff. 

Charters,  W.  W.,  3. 

Collins,  J.,  105. 

Comprehension,  effect  of  training  in 
speed,  upon,  197  f. 

Concentration  of  attention,  63  ff. 

Conference,  reading,  160. 

Consciousness,  pragmatic  theory  of, 
102. 

Control,  method  of,  153 :  group,  153. 

Correlation  between  rate  and  com- 
prehension, 14  ff.,  19  ff. 

Courten,  H.  C.,  106. 

Courtis  Test,  166. 

Curriculum,  criterion  for,  20  f. 

Curtis,  H.  S.,  106. 

Curtis,  J.  N.,  60. 


Dearborn,  W.  F.,  7,  12,  79. 
Decrease    of    vocalization    in    silent 

reading,  43  ff.,  100  ff. 
Delabarre,  E.  B.,  7. 
Directions  to  pupils,  98  f. 
Discrimination  reaction  time,  224  f. 
Dodge,  R.,  4  ff. 
Dynamogenesis,  theory  of,  110,  113. 

Egger,  V.,  102  ff. 

Emphasis,  in  teaching  reading,  22  ff. 

Erdmann,  B.,  4  ff. 

Eye-movement,  habits  of,  54. 

Eyes,  apparatus  to  measure  move- 
ment of,  5  ff. 

Eyes,  movements  of,  during  reading, 
5  ff . ;  interfixation  movements  of, 
8  ff . ;  fusion,  due  to  velocity  of,  9 ; 
return  sweep  of,  9. 

Field  of  vision,  127. 
Fixation-pauses,   10  ff . ;    number  of, 

1 1 ;   duration  of,  1 1  f . 
Fordyce,  C.,  55. 

Gary,  norms  of,  203. 

Goldscheider,  A.,  3. 

Graph,    individual,    74    f. ;     how    to 

make,  158  ff. 

Gray,  C.  T.,  15,  40.  44  ff.,  50  ff..  60  f. 
Gray,  W.  S.,  15,  54. 

Habits  of  eye-movement.  54  ff. 

Hansen,  F.  C.,  107. 

History  of  reading,  as  school  subject, 

28  f. 

Holmes,  H.  W.,  1. 
Holt,  E.  B.,  9. 
Hosic,  J.  F.,  163. 
Huey,  E.  B.,  5  ff.,  38,  48. 


Idea,  kinsrathetic,  106. 

Imagery,  visual  type  of,  78  f. ;   audi- 


287 


288 


INDEX 


tory,  79 ;  motor,  79 ;  relation  to 
speed  of  reading,  133  ff. ;  "surro- 
gate," 138;  mixed,  137  ff. ; 
dominant,  136 ;  vocal-motor,  137. 

Index  of  comprehension,  168  ff. ; 
measured  by  number  of  questions 
answered,  210  ff. 

Innervation,  sensations  of,  102. 

Interest,  immediate,  65 ;  mediate,  76. 

Introspection,  in  reading,  64,  67,  103, 
117. 

James,  W.,  85. 

Javal,  E.,  6. 

Judd,  C.  H.,  7  ff.,  16,  30. 

Kraepelin,  E.,  164. 

Lamare,  6. 

Lehmann,  A.,  107. 

Lip-movement,  43  ff . ;  origin  of,  108  ff. 

Mann,  H.,  23. 

Massachusetts,  Board  of  Education, 
23. 

Material,  suitable  for  reading,  281  ff. 

Meade,  C.  D.,  17. 

Messmer,  O.,  79. 

Methods,  of  teaching  reading,  3  f . ; 
alphabetical,  4 ;  word  and  sen- 
tence, 4. 

Meumann,  E.,  137  ff. 

Mueller,  R.  F.,  3. 

Musculature,  articulatory,  103  ff., 
134  f. 

Netschajeff,  A.,  136. 
Neural  factor,  77. 

Norms,  present  compared  with  pro- 
posed, 203. 

Oberholtzer,  E.  E.,  17,  41. 

O'Brien,  J.  A.,  203,  204  ff. 

Ocular  reaction,  uniformity  of,  54  ff. 

Ocular  span,  56  f. 

Overlapping  of  visual  spans,  58. 

Paraphrase,  88. 

Paulhan,  F.,  104  ff. 

Perception,  training  in,  49  ff.,  126  ff. 


Perceptual  process,  by  word-,  phrase-, 
and  sentence-wholes,  3. 

Perceptual  span,  relative  and  abso- 
lute, 52,  132  f. ;  widening  of,  50  f. 

Peters,  C.  C.,  37. 

Phonetics,  22  f.,  151. 

Photographic  records,  234  ff. 

Physiological,  basis  of  reading,  14,  70. 

Pintner,  R.,  16  f. 

Practice,  in  rapid  reading,  37  ff., 
82  ff. ;  length  of,  91  ff. 

Prehension,  span  of,  139. 

Premonitions,  meaning,  129. 

Preparation,  thought,  96  ff. ;  word,  98. 

Psychological  test,  136  f. 

Psychology,  findings  of,  modify  read- 
ing methods,  3  ff. 

Purpose,  effect  of,  in  reading,  59  ff. 

Quanta,  J.  O.,  36,  43  f.,  108  ff. 
Questioning,  manner  of,  94  f . 

Rapid  reader's  photographic  record, 
253  ff. 

Rate,  of  reading,  effect  of  training  on, 
171  ff. ;  comparison  with  norms, 
203  ff. ;  factors  in,  36  ff. 

Reaction  time,  of  eye-movements, 
77  f . ;  correlation  with  reading 
rate,  224  ff. 

Reading,  comparison  of  silent  and 
oral,  13  ff.,  16  ff. ;  rates  of,  16  f. ; 
comprehension  of,  18  ff. ;  neglect 
of  silent  reading,  20  ff. ;  anach- 
ronism of  oral,  25  ff. ;  silent, 
emphasis  on,  29 ;  alternate,  and 
reproduction,  93  ff. 

Recognition  of  value  of  rapid  reading, 
70  f. 

Refixation,  14. 

Regressive  movements  —  variation 
in,  61. 

Relative  gains  in  speed,  in  different 
grades,  198  ff. 

Repetitive  reading,  53. 

Reproductions  of  matter  read,  19,  64. 

Rhythm  of  eye-movements,  54  ff. 

Ribot,  T.,  101  ff. 

Rivers,  W.  H.,  164. 

Ruediger,  W.  C.,  68  f. 


INDEX 


289 


Schmidt,  W.  A.,  5,  11,  12,  14  f. 

Secor,  W.  B.,  115. 

"Set,"  mental,  60,  62,  74,  94. 

Sex,  factor  of,  231. 

Skimming,  94. 

Slow  reader's  photographic  record, 
258  ff. 

Speech,  inner,  definition  of,  100  f. ; 
history  of,  101  ff . ;  origin  of,  108  ff . ; 
necessity  of,  114  ff . ;  means  of  in- 
hibiting, 117  ff. 

Starch,  D.  A.,  203  ff. 

St.  Louis  school  survey,  03. 

Stoelting,  C.  H.,  142. 

Strieker.  S.,  103  ff. 

Stumpf,  ('.,  104. 

Subject  matter  affecting  reading 
rate,  53. 

Synaptical  connections,  112. 


Tachistoscopical  exposures,  4,  50  f., 

83  f. 

Tests,  standard,  16  ff. 
Thorndike,  E.  L.,  24. 
Time,  control,  73  f . ;  amount  devoted 

to  reading,  1. 
Training  in  rapid  reading,  length  of, 

152  ff. 
Tulsa  reading  survey,  41. 

Variability,  in  amount  of  gain,  208  f. 
Vision,    peripheral,    127   ff. ;     foveal, 
130  ff. 

Waldo,  K.  D.,  202. 
"Warming  up"  period,  96  f. 
Whipple,  G.  M.,  60. 
Will  to  read  rapidly,  71  ff. 
Work  curve.  164,  228  ff. 


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